Friday, October 2, 2009

Peter Gay on Western Civilization circa 1970:

"Men have been made into accomplices to their own destruction. They have been victimized by shrewd manipulators who give them meaningless concessions--a little more money, a so-called free electoral system, and deafening, soul-destroying entertainment. And what has been the result? Men have been numbed until they demand neither genuine benefits nor real power. They feel pleasure when they should be feeling pain...What good is prosperity if all men have the same taste? What good is a free press if all newspapers print the same opinions?"

--Peter Gay, The Bridge of Criticism (NY: Harper Torchbooks, 1970): 147-148.

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