Institutions progress but human beings don't, and their capacity for
cruelty and violence is infinite.
A pessimistic thought, to be sure. But British philosopher Roger
Scruton is rather optimistic about pessimism. Indeed, in The Uses of
Pessimism he prescribes "a dose" of that very tendency as the tonic
for the kind of utopian thinking indulged in by thinkers such as
Badiou and Zizek. We should respond to their irrational exuberance
and "unscrupulous optimism", he suggests, through respect for custom
and tradition; the "we" of unruffled compromise and gradual mutuality.
<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/do-worry-and-dont-always-be-happy/story-e6frg8nf-1225900609218>Link
- [monochrom] Institutions progress but human bei... das ende der nahrungskette
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