Quotes from Tony Judt

By the late '60s, the culture gap separating young people from their parents was perhaps greater than at any point since the early 19th century.

Even after the Allies emerged triumphant in 1945, these concerns were not forgotten: depression and fascism remained ever-present in men's minds. The urgent question was not how to celebrate a magnificent victory and get back to business as usual, but how on earth to ensure that the experience of the years 1914-1945 would never be repeated. More than anyone else, it was Maynard Keynes who devoted himself to addressing this challenge.

A tak pokaždé, když nÄ›jaký trouba prohlásí, že Saddám Husajn je druhý Hitler, musíme se do sporu vložit a tyhle zjednoduÅ¡ující pitomosti zkomplikovat. RealitÄ› odpovídající zmatek je mnohem lepÅ¡í než elegantní nepravdy.

Schopnost evokovat Hitlera, OsvÄ›tim nebo Mnichov má své pÃ…â"¢ednosti: alespo? se tak sou?asnost dovolává minulosti, místo aby ji zcela ignorovala. Dnes to ?iníme amatérsky a stále více zp?sobem, kterým sami sobÄ› Å¡kodíme, ale aspo? to dÄ›láme. Nemáme se tÄ›chto aktivit vzdát, nýbrž provádÄ›t je s vyÅ¡Å¡í mírou historické informovanosti a vnímavosti.

the old ideological Left was part of the problem, not the solution. In

place of the male proletariat there were now posited the candidacies of 'blacks', 'students', 'women' and, a little later, homosexuals. Since none of these constituents, at home or abroad, was separately represented in the institutions of welfare societies, the new Left presented itself quite consciously as opposing not merely the injustices of the capitalist order but above all the 'repressive tolerance' of its most advanced forms: precisely

The Social Question, if left unaddressed, does not just go away. It goes instead in search of more radical answers.

Zkrátka a dobÃ…â"¢e – lidem, kteÃ…â"¢í mluví o vÅ¡em, hrozí ztráta schopnosti mluvit o n??em.

high taxation was not regarded in these years as an affront. On the contrary, steep rates of progressive income tax were seen as a consensual device to take excess resources away from the privileged

Keynes himself had taken the view that capitalism would not survive if its workings were reduced to merely furnishing the wealthy with the means to get wealthier.

But the Soviet leader, unlike his western counterparts, had no good options. He could not realistically hope to prevent German unity except by reversing his benign public announcements of recent years and seriously damaging his own credibility. He did initially oppose the absorption of a united Germany into NATO;

only one party that could represent and advance the interests of that class: the Communists; and only one correct outcome to the workers' struggle under Communist direction: the Revolution, as patented in Russia fifty years before.

The avowedly politicized language of punk rock bands, exemplified in the Sex Pistols' 1976 hit 'Anarchy in the UK', caught the sour mood of the time. But the punk bands' politics were as one-dimensional as their musical range, the latter all too often restricted to three chords and a single beat and dependent upon volume for its effect.

The idea that it was the state's business to know what was good for people—while we accept it uncomplainingly in school curriculums and hospital practices—smacked of eugenics and perhaps euthanasia.

Communism was now forever to be associated with oppression, not revolution. For forty years the Western Left had looked to Russia, forgiving and even admiring Bolshevik violence as the price of revolutionary self-confidence and the march of History. Moscow was the flattering mirror of their political illusions. In November 1956, the mirror shattered.

World history is not the soil in which happiness grows. Periods of happiness are empty pages in it'. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

The history and memory of the Second World War were typically confined to a familiar set of moral conventions: Good versus Evil, Anti-Fascists against Fascists, Resisters against Collaborators and so forth.

One striking consequence of the disintegration of the public sector has been an increased difficulty in comprehending what we have in common with others.

even if the students of Berkeley, Berlin and Bangalore share a common set of interests, these do not translate into community. Space matters. And politics is a function of space—we

The loss of social purpose articulated through public services actually increases the unrestrained powers of the over-mighty state.

sense of shared citizenship. This sentiment was crucial to the formation of modern states and the peaceful societies they governed.

the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee used to advise against the 'fundamental fallacy' of believing that 'it is possible by the elaboration of machinery to escape the necessity of trusting one's fellow human beings'.10

Rigid dress codes can indeed enforce authority and suppress individuality—an army uniform is intended to do just that. But in their time, uniforms—whether worn by schoolchildren, mailmen, train conductors or street-crossing wardens—bespoke a certain egalitarianism. A child in regulation clothing is under no pressure to compete sartorially with his better-off contemporaries. A

We should by now have learned that politics remains national, even if economics does not: the history of the 20th century offers copious evidence that even in healthy democracies, bad political choices usually trump 'rational' economic calculations.