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About this quote

What does it mean?
Politics requires understanding the rules but also having blind faith in its importance.
In plain terms
You need to know the game but also believe it matters even if it does not.
What can you take from it?
Politics demands both intelligence and naivety.

Where it applies

  • career choice
  • political satire
  • self-reflection

Putting it to work

  • evaluate personal fit
  • maintain perspective

Questions to consider

  • Why do we play games that matter less than they seem?
  • Can you be smart and dumb about the same thing?

Another view

It dismisses the genuine impact of policy on people.

More from Eugene McCarthy

  1. As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.

    Permalink to quote #13
  2. In politics one may remain aloof and become irrelavent or get involved and get corrupted.

    Permalink to quote #15
  3. I can still smell the tear gas in the Hilton Hotel.

    Permalink to quote #16

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