Under the rules of a society that cannot distinguish between profit and profiteering, between money defined as necessity and money defined as luxury, murder is occasionally obligatory and always permissible.
Lewis H. LaphamRead
Of what does politics consist except the making of imperfect decisions, many of them unjust and quite a few of them deadly?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Politics often involves making flawed decisions that can have significant negative consequences.
In this quote, Lewis H. Lapham emphasizes the inherent difficulties and moral complexities involved in political decision-making. He suggests that politics is characterized by the necessity to make choices that, despite being imperfect and sometimes unjust, must be made to navigate the complexities of governance and society. The acknowledgment of these flawed decisions highlights the weight of responsibility that leaders carry and the potential ramifications that such choices can have on people's lives.
Themes
PoliticsDecisionsImperfectUnjustConsequences
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on political ethics, one might use this quote to illustrate the challenges leaders face in decision-making.
More from Lewis H. Lapham
All quotes βA society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it.
Lewis H. LaphamRead
Similar quotes
Public opinion in Egypt is very antagonistic to the way the dictatorship, Mubarak dictatorship, interpreted relations with Israel. Very antagonistic.
Noam ChomskyRead
A day will come when our children and grandchildren will look back and they'll ask one of two questions. Either they will ask: "what in God's name were they doing?" or they may look back and say: "how did they find the uncommon moral courage to rise above politics and redeem the promise of American democracy?"
Al GoreRead
About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.
Will RogersRead
I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.
Abraham LincolnRead
My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency.
Shirley ChisholmRead
According to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible.... The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist construction both in theory and in practice. We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy.
Mikhail GorbachevRead