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Coming Soon:

The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."





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Wednesday, June 19, 2019

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT


Goodness gracious.  I leave you alone for a few moments while I try to deal with a vexing electricity problem in my Paris apartment and when I return I find that all hell has broken loose.  Let us take a deep breath and remember that the people you are excoriating [including myself, though that is the least of it] are, in the larger scheme of things, so close to you on the political spectrum that in any world that does not include a Dictatorship of the Proletariat, they would have to be your allies in the enactment of even the least controversial of your favorite proposals.

Short of taking up arms against a sea of troubles, which I would imagine is not the preferred mode of social change in this corner of the blogosphere, you are left with ground level organizing and electoral politics, both of which succeed only when large numbers of people can be mobilized, many of whom, alas, may not see things exactly as you do. 

Let the process work for a while, do what you can and will for the candidate, the policy proposal, or the global vision nearest and dearest to your heart, and wait a bit to see how things shake out.

In any real world I can envision, all of us will be comrades, though we may not all be lovers.

2 comments:

Testiclies said...

"...you are left with ground level organizing and electoral politics, both of which succeed only when large numbers of people can be mobilized, many of whom, alas, may not see things exactly as you do."

Exactly.

Chris said...

Professor Wolff could you please elaborate on 4.