The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles which are deeply rooted in human nature.
One is that by the very order of things such evils are not demonstrable until they have occurred: at each stage in their onset there is room for doubt and for dispute whether they be real or imaginary. By the same token, they attract little attention in comparison with current troubles, which are both indisputable and pressing: whence the besetting temptation of all politics to concern itself with the immediate present at the expense of the future.
We cannot dismiss his words
Interesting comments at Gates of Vienna
Interesting comments at Gates of Vienna
2 comments:
As in so many other matters, Enoch was right but, as far as I know, offered no remedy - because there ain't one! It is as much as we can do to cope with the problems that beset us today, let alone attempting to define and then deal with the problems 20? 50? 100? years away. By and large, I believe, futurologists do not have a very good record!
Ol' Duffers, I do believe he gave a remedy - more involved in the speech, but basically said, stop the inflow, increase the outflow. Nobody listened to him, and now Britain is paying the death taxes for her demise.
I also believe futurologist have no future! *sniggling* Unfortunately your predictions did not come to pass, but it was fun to dream.
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