He presented it not as a dry policy plan, with just numbers and actuarial tables, but as a manifesto that drew on the canon of Western political philosophy as interpreted by conservative intellectuals. The document’s introduction referred to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, Hayek, Friedman, Adam Smith, Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, John Locke, Alexis de Tocqueville, Georges-Eugène Sorel, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Charles Murray, and Niall Ferguson. Ryan himself seemed intent on entering the canon. “Only by taking responsibility for oneself, to the greatest extent possible, can one ever be free,” he wrote, “and only a free person can make responsible choices—between right and wrong, saving and spending, giving or taking.”
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Ryan-related Quiz
I take this quote from this New Yorker profile of Ryan by Ryan Lizza:
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3 comments:
Since writing the post I searched the Road Map (thank goodness for search options to avoid reading the entire thing!), and I found no reference to Sorel. This is somewhat reassuring, cause I don't think that those Republicans would like him if he read them.
a French Politician ?? :) that stood for the populace in a difficult time. Great thinker, often quoted... how am I doing?
From memory, so reader beware!
George Sorel is the late-19th early 20th century French syndicalist thinker who published "Reflections on Violence" in 1900. Sorel advocated the idea of a "general strike" and the use of violence to change society.
Now tell me how that would ever fit with Paul Ryan. I think that someone must have made a mistake!
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