I read an account of Henry Wallace several days ago. He was Franklin D. Roosevelt's vice-president, and might have, under different circumstances, been president. It sounded like he could have been a better bet than Truman and the rest of US and world history may have been very different. But, hindsight is twenty-twenty. You can't always get what you want. You don't always want what you get. Wallace was a philosopher and politician. From what I read, I don't think he was a fool.
I, too, think that philosophers who become politicians are fools, but I found the quote quite provoking and that's why I put it here. I had to think of Zoran Đinđić, a Serbian philosopher (and student of Habermas), who became prime minister of Serbia. He was murdered because of his pro-Western policy and also because he had helped to send Milošević to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Sometimes, I think then that he had better stayed a philosopher.
Point well made, and taken. Too bad for Socrates. And more than a few others... I never saw much sense in martyrdom. Which is why I left the USA in,1969, rather than be spirited off, another lamb to slaughter in Southeast Asia. FYI, see also my remarks on Messerly's blog, concerning what we don't know what we don't know, and the Rifkin/Crawford discussions. Thanks.
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I read an account of Henry Wallace several days ago. He was Franklin D. Roosevelt's vice-president, and might have, under different circumstances, been president. It sounded like he could have been a better bet than Truman and the rest of US and world history may have been very different. But, hindsight is twenty-twenty. You can't always get what you want. You don't always want what you get. Wallace was a philosopher and politician. From what I read, I don't think he was a fool.
I, too, think that philosophers who become politicians are fools, but I found the quote quite provoking and that's why I put it here.
I had to think of Zoran Đinđić, a Serbian philosopher (and student of Habermas), who became prime minister of Serbia. He was murdered because of his pro-Western policy and also because he had helped to send Milošević to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Sometimes, I think then that he had better stayed a philosopher.
Point well made, and taken. Too bad for Socrates. And more than a few others...
I never saw much sense in martyrdom. Which is why I left the USA in,1969, rather than be spirited off, another lamb to slaughter in Southeast Asia. FYI, see also my remarks on Messerly's blog, concerning what we don't know what we don't know, and the Rifkin/Crawford discussions. Thanks.
Yes, can happen. Thank you for your comment, anyway.
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