Politics and Vision by Sheldon S. Wolin

Author:Sheldon S. Wolin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2009-01-02T16:00:00+00:00

Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed . . . the diversity of our opinions . . . does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of Reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects. For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellencies, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations; and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, provided they keep to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it.140

The same suspicion of greatness was reproduced in constitutional theory and Lord Bryce may well have asked in The American Commonwealth why “great men” rarely were elected president, just as, more recently, General de Gaulle has cavilled against le système. For the “system” had been consciously designed to eliminate the need for greatness:

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