September 23, 2005

PhilosophyQuiz!

It's the game that all the cool young people are playing. Or so you should think because I said so.

For Ra points, identify the dangerous anti-American radicals who said the following (edited slightly to make them harder to track down):

(1) In the abstract we celebrate freedom of opinion as part of our patriotic legacy; ... [it is] only when some Americans exercise it that other Americans are shocked .... Intolerance of dissent is a well-noted feature of the American national character


(2) I know of no country where there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in America .... The majority raises very formidable barriers to the liberty opinion: within these barriers an author may write whatever he pleases, but he ... [must] repent it if he ever steps beyond them


And what defender of tradition and critic of modern culture said this:

(3) The [elite] cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing ... the whole relations of society .... All fixed, fast, frozen relations with their train of ancient and venerable ... opinions, are swept away; all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned .... the [elite] has, through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country


For double Ra points (because this one is hard), figure out which book, published within the last two years, I'm reading that uses all three of these quotes.

One quote per person. Hints late this afternoon if no-one seems to be getting them.

Edit: Ben was complaining that I didn't say what the points were. It's five for each quote, and ten for the last one.

6 comments:

Rob said...

Quote #2 is Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in America, Vol 1.

Unknown said...

Quote #3 - Marx and Engels "The Communist Manifesto"

Noumena said...

First hint for the book: one of its Amazon SIPs is "security elites".

Remember, it's a book I'm reading for my own edification. Anyone is eligible for answering this.

Noumena said...

Oh, and those answers are all correct. :-)

Unknown said...

Got to hand it to you, Noumena, that's a tough one. The clue was a big help, but I'm still taking a shot in the dark with:

America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism by Anatol Lieven

Noumena said...

Great job! If I do this again, I might have to jiggle the point values a bit.

That's 15 for drew, and 5 each for jamie and rob.