Fear and Loathing Week
[see here] While the political party of which I am a member disgraces itself with its absurd new website, I’m reminded of this bit of Alasdair MacIntyre, as he attacks the so-called communitarians with whom he’s too often associated:
The modern nation-state, in whatever guise, is a dangerous and unmanageable institution, presenting itself on the one hand as a bureaucratic supplier of goods and services, which is always about to, but never actually does, give its clients value for money, and on the other as a repository of sacred values, which from time to time invites one to lay down one’s life on its behalf. As I have remarked elsewhere… it is like being asked to die for the telephone company.
Alasdair MacIntyre, “A Partial Reply to My Critics”, in Horton and Mendus, eds., After MacIntyre, p.303.