Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes
Intellectuals cannot be good revolutionaries; they are just good enough to be assassins.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Dirty Hands. No Exit and Three Other Plays, Vintage Books, 1989, p. 217.
This quotation is used by the moderate Egyptians and other moderate Arab leaders as well as Israelis and other experts in combating Islamic Fundamentalism to illustrate the thinking process of the Muslim fundamentalist terrorist leader. They are more than willing to sacrifice those they lead (though rarely themselves) if they think that something is to be gained. But if there is nothing to be gained, their “moral” responsibility requires not “wasting” their followers’ lives. Therefore, the way these experts believe they should deal with the radicals is to face them with overwhelming force (a variant of the Powell Doctrine) and never concede anything or let them gain anything from violence. A single concession makes the terrorism, sacrifice and violence worthwhile, but if there is no gain, the leader has wasted the lives of his followers and is less likely to initiate another attack.
This is not only attributed by reliable sources but apparently Roosevelt had said this on several occasions. The word “radical” has had different shades of meaning at different periods of American History. The origin of the word from the Latin means someone who wishes to change things very rapidly and not gradually. In the time of the Civil War, the majority of the Republicans proudly referred to themselves as “radicals” or “radical Republicans” because they wanted to abolish slavery immediately. In the late 19th century the word “radical” referred to anarchists. From the Russian Revolution onward “radicals” were communists who presumably wanted to change governments throughout the work through revolution—very rapid change. However, in the early 20th century, radicals were people who wanted to reform and regulate businesses and monopolies rapidly and it is this sense he was a radical. But by style, he was a radical in most things in that he wanted to change things and change them rapidly.
Mandela was the head of the African National Congress a revolutionary party fighting against the then dictatorial apartheid government. As the head of the ANC armed wing, after years of peaceful protests and suffering literal massacres of people for nothing other than protesting, Mandela embarked upon a program of sabotage of military and government facilities reserving guerrilla warfare if that failed. Mandela was arrested for the sabotage and served 27 years in jail. While Mandela was incarcerated, the government resorted to death squads and massacres and the ANC retaliated with counter terrorism—but Mandela was not a part of it. There were a number of communists in the ANC movement, but when Mandela, released from jail, became the President of the integrated country, he maintained supported a capitalistic system which it has been ever since. However his refusal to purge the ANC of communists when he needed all the help he could get, has been held against him by some arch conservatives. To many of them, a communist is a communist, a friend of a communist is a communist, a person who knowingly works with or associates with communists is a communist, a revolutionary is a communist, a person who advocates whatever communists advocate is a communist, a person who opposes the investigation of communists in any field of endeavor is a communist. Mandella opposed racial discrimination and the Communist party also did to embarrass the US and other capitalistic countries which then had legal discrimination. Therefore, Mandella was accused of being a communist early in his career. The same thing happened in the United States where anyone who advocated Civil Rights and racial equality was a communist because he/she was echoing the communist line.
The veiled threat of violence and disruption was a tactic that did not work.
Referring to then Senator Hubert H. Humphrey who was popular with the left wing of the Democratic party when Johnson was Majority Leader.
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology, and one of the leading figures in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. His work has also influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies, and continues to influence these disciplines.
