January 24, 2008

A Democratic Diplodocus



The following quote is from George Kennan, who served as America's ambassador to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. To preface it, he is talking about the relationship between Democracy and war.

"But I sometimes wonder whether in this respect democracy is not uncomfortably similar to one of those prehistoric monsters with a body as long as this room and a brain the size of a pin : he lies there in his comfortable primeval mud and pays little attention to his environment; he is slow to wrath-in fact, you practically have to whack his tail off to make him aware that his interests are being disturbed; but, once he grasps this, he lays about him with such a blind determination that he not only destroys his adversary but largely wrecks his native habitat. You wonder whether it would not have been wiser for him to have taken a little more interest in what was going on at an earlier date and to have seen whether he could have prevented some of these situations from arising instead of proceeding from an undiscriminating indifference to a holy wrath equally undiscriminating."

-American Diplomacy, p.66

6 comments:

Brian Franklin said...

Are you reading your wife's class-books again!? Or, is she just showing you the cool quotations!?

Jacob Haynes said...

I might just pick up a book on American Diplomacy on my own, I might.





I admit, she just showed me the cool quotations. But the dinosaur was my idea. Though she did give me the dinosaur...

Anonymous said...

Jacob stop trying to take credit for Laura's amazing life observations. PS : we have poker night ever friday night - y'all should come sometime!

Anonymous said...

That's quite a funny quotation. I like.

Anonymous said...

Such a serious and Looooong quote. How about something simple like:

Why did the diplodocus devour the factory???

Because he was a plant eater. :)

Jacob Haynes said...

It’s not that long but it may be a bit too serious for my Diplodocus (bless his heart). So, here’s a joke from Jurassic Park:

Q: What do you call a Blind Dinosaur?
A: Do-ya-think-he-saurus.
Q: What do you call a Blind Dinosaur's Dog?
A: Do-ya-think-he-saurus Rex.