But to the president [FDR], who was “unfamiliar” with Keynes’ theoretical academic work, Keynes was an impractical mystic. Though he insisted to Frankfurter that he and Keynes had a “grand talk” together and that he “liked” the British economist “immensely,” the truth was that FDR had been annoyed by the haze of high theory in which Keynes had enshrouded their conversation.
No doubt, “violence pays,” but the trouble is that it pays indiscriminately, for “soul courses” and instruction in Swahili as well as for real re-forms. And since the tactics of violence and disruption make sense only for short-term goals, it is even more likely, as was recently the case in the United States, that the established power will yield to nonsensical and obviously damaging demands—such as admitting students without the necessary qualifications and instructing them in nonexistent subjects—if only such “reforms” can be made with comparative ease, than that violence will be effective with respect to the relatively long-term objective of structural change.
To be illuminated is to not-forget. With this parable [of the cave], Plato introduces us to the essential opening through which we must pass to enter into perennial philosophy. This doorway opens into the recognition, the re-cognition that there is truth, and that we can perceive it for ourselves.
Kissinger made a choice for stoicism, not pessimism, a willingness to endure no matter what obstacles were placed in his path, though with no ultimate ends to aim for, nothing beyond the affirmation of existence itself and the perpetuation of the United States.
