Tuesday, 14 October 2025

"...one of the infinite ways that man can choose to be an imbecile..."

Being on the left is, like being on the right, one of the infinite ways that man can choose to be an imbecile: both, in effect, are forms of Moral Hemiplegia*.”
~José Ortega y Gasset from his 1930 book La rebelion de las masas [The revolt of the masses], written at the time of the Spanish Civil War
* Moral Hemiplegia = paralysis on one side off the body

1 comment:

Peter Cresswell said...

"Being on the left, like being on the right, is one of the infinite ways that a man can choose to be an imbecile; both, effectively, are forms of moral hemiplegia [paralysis on one side off the body]. Furthermore, the persistence of these labels contributes more than a little to falsifying still more the present ‘reality’ – already false in itself – because they twist still further the political experiences they respond to, as is evidenced by the fact that today the rightists promise revolutions, and the leftists propose tyrannies.”