Thursday, August 23, 2018
Permanent Indignation
Paul Valéry (1871-1945), Collected Works, Vol. 14: Analects, tr. Stuart Gilbert (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), pp. 249-250:
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An attitude of permanent indignation signifies great mental poverty. Politics compels its votaries to take that line and you can see their minds growing more and more impoverished every day, from one burst of righteous anger to the next.
Each party has its own program of indignation, and its standard reflexes.
L'attitude de l'indignation habituelle, signe d'une grande pauvreté de l'esprit. La «politique» y contraint ses suppôts. On voit leur esprit s'appauvrir de jour en jour, de juste colère en juste colère.
Chaque parti a son programme d'indignation, ses réflexes conventionnels.
