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Are we, in blind obedience to primitive instincts and old prejudices, enslaved by the old catchwords and that curious indolence which makes the revision of old ideas unpleasant, to duplicate indefinitely on the political and economic side a condition from which we have liberated ourselves on the religious side? Are we to continue to struggle, as so many good men struggled in the first dozen centuries of Christendom - spilling oceans of blood, wasting mountains of treasure - to achieve what is at bottom a logical absurdity, to accomplish something which, when accomplished, can avail us nothing, and which, if it could avail us anything, would condemn the nations of the world to never-ending bloodshed and the constant defeat of all those aims which men, in their sober hours, know to be alone worthy of sustained endeavor?

Norman Angell#12

PoliticsHistoryProgressReasonIdeologyPrejudice

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author asks if we are still blindly following old instincts and prejudices instead of revising them.
In plain terms
Are we still doing the same old things just because we are used to them?
What can you take from it?
Avoid repeating old mistakes by revising outdated ideas.

Where it applies

  • critiquing political systems
  • discussing progress
  • analyzing historical patterns

Putting it to work

  • revising old policies
  • challenging traditions
  • promoting rational thought

Questions to consider

  • Should we keep doing things just because they are traditional?
  • How do we revise old ideas?

Another view

The quote relies heavily on rhetorical questions that may not persuade everyone.

More from Norman Angell

  1. War has no longer the justification that it makes for the survival of the fittest; it involves the survival of the less fit. The idea that the struggle between…

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  2. It is, of course, merely a truism to say that war, like other social or political evils, is the outcome of the bad management of human society, which is, in it…

    Permalink to quote #13
  3. The fight for ideals can no longer take the form of fight between nations, because the lines of division on moral questions are within the nations themselves a…

    Permalink to quote #10

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