The Pleasures Of Mental Agility Are Much

I Worry That We Have Forgotten That The De-ideologized, De-politicized, Uncontentious Public Space Of The Last 50 Years As Europeans Have Experienced It Is Not The Normal Human Condition. We Shall Be Sorry To Have Abandoned A Little Too Quickly The Institutions That Were Set Up By Our Parents And Grandparents To Protect Themselves Against A Return Of The Bad Old World. Because The Bad Old World Can Still Come Back To Haunt You.

The 60s Were A Continuation Of The 50s Much More Than People Realized. Certainly In Some Countries, Like Britain, There Was Still A Culture Of Deference, Whereas In The 70s We Really Are In A Time Of Angry Transition. The Generation That Came Into Young Adulthood In The 70s Couldn't Find Jobs; That Wasn't True In My Generation. They Entered A Time When Two Depressing Things Hit Them Both At The Same Time.

There Is Nothing To Be Said For Being Crippled. You Don't See The World Better Or Clearer, Nor Do You Develop Some Special Set Of Skills By Way Of Compensation.

Social Democracy Does Not Represent An Ideal Future; It Does Not Even Represent The Ideal Past.

I Don't Believe In An Afterlife. I Don't Believe In A Single Or Multiple Godhead. I Respect People Who Do, But I Don't Believe It Myself.