Sunday, May 03, 2020

Paul Gottfried Reviews R.R. Reno's Latest Book

The Agonist: The Gutless Persuasion on the Return of the Strong Gods by Paul Gottfried

Let me also note that what held together ancient democracies, and what Rousseau properly observed as their strength, was homonoia, a loyalty to the polity, its cult and its history. Today it is doubtful that our football fans embody the same shared sentiments. Reno fails to see that a democracy of, say, 10,000 citizens with the same cultural and moral principles wouldn’t practice self-government in a more meaningful sense than sports enthusiasts bellowing out the national anthem. Certainly, size and heterogeneity affect the quality of a democracy. Still, I wouldn’t expect Russell Reno to concede something so obvious, unless it were in his professional interest.

I think that one sentence should be: "Reno fails to see that a democracy of, say, 10,000 citizens with the same cultural and moral principles would..."

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