Politics is a way of ruling in divided societies without undue violence…politics is not just a necessary evil; it is a realistic good.
Here is Ezra's reaction to the news that eminent political theorist Bernard Crick had died . Although he was a good age, Ez couldn’t help but be saddened by the news. You see, unlike Henry – naturally attracted to the political firebrands like Robespierre or Trotsky – Ezra is a conciliator, thus naturally Crick was his kind of guy. Essentially a moderniser rather than a radical, Crick’s notion of political reform appeals to Ezra’s astute sense of balance and responsibility. Like myself, Ezra was attracted to Crick primary through his masterful In Defence of Politics (1962). At a time of ideological tumult, the book reasserted the importance of politics and the nobility of the political vocation to an age that seemed either apolitical or anti-political in character. For Crick, the ideologically driven leader – think Castro, Mugabe or Chavez – practises a form of anti-politics , in which the goal is the mobilisation of the populace towards a common end – even if it means killing som...