There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war.
Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Anti-intellectualism often stems from a distrust of educated individuals, paralleling anti-Semitism in its roots among businessmen.
In this quote, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. draws a comparison between anti-intellectualism and anti-Semitism, suggesting that both attitudes are driven by a deep-seated distrust or hostility. He implies that those in business may reject intellectual pursuits and insights, much like historical prejudices against Jewish individuals, revealing how biases can shape societal attitudes toward knowledge and intellect in cultural and economic contexts.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
Mention this quote during a debate on education reform to highlight the importance of valuing intellectual contributions.
More from Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
All quotes βScience and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response.
The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it could punish the man without punishing the office.
Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought.
Man generally is entangled in insoluble problems; history is consequently a tragedy in which we are all involved, whose keynote is anxiety and frustration, not progress and fulfilment.
In view of the tide of religiosity engulfing a once secular republic it is refreshing to be reminded by Freethinkers that free thought and skepticism are robustly in the American tradition. After all the Founding Fathers began by omitting God from the American Constitution.
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We are spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father who placed us in mortality to see if we would choose - freely choose - to keep His commandments and come unto His Beloved Son. They do not compel us. They cannot, for that would interfere with the plan of happiness. And so there is in us a God-given desire to be responsible for our own choices.
The federal government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it . . . is now universally admitted.
Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God. It doesn't comfort man. On the contrary, it encourages him in his folly, it transports him to the supreme regions where he is master of his own destiny.
The three Divine are in this hierarchy, First the Dominions, and the Virtues next;_x000D_ _x000D_ And the third order is that of the Powers. The in the dances twain penultimate_x000D_ _x000D_ The Principalities and Archangels wheel; The last is wholly of angelic sports._x000D_ _x000D_ These orders upward all of them are gazing,_x000D_ _x000D_ And downward so prevail, that unto God_x000D_ _x000D_ They all attracted are and all attract.
I do not bring forgiveness with me, nor forgetfulness. The only ones who can forgive are dead; the living have no right to forget.
Philosophy is the highest music.