There is nothing an addict likes more, or that serves as better pretext for continuing his present way of life, than to place the weight of responsibility for his situation somewhere other than on his own decisions.
Theodore DalrympleIf the history of the 20th Century proved anything, it proved that however bad things were, human ingenuity could usually find a way to make them worse.
Theodore DalrympleThe idea that man is a tabula rasa, or Mao's sheet of blank paper upon which the most beautiful characters can be written, is an old one with disastrous implications. I do not think though that the cults you mention could survive honest thought about human nature.
Theodore DalrympleOrders can be benign or malign, but the habit of obeying them can become ingrained.
Theodore DalrympleFeeling good about yourself is not the same thing as doing good. Good policy is more important than good feelings.
Theodore DalrympleThe loss of the religious understanding of the human conditionโthat Man is a fallen creature for whom virtue is necessary but never fully attainableโis a loss, not a gain, in true sophistication. The secular substituteโthe belief in the perfection of life on earth by the endless extension of a choice of pleasuresโis not merely callow by comparison but much less realistic in its understanding of human nature.
Theodore Dalrymple