Lewis H. Lapham Quotes
Power broken into a thousand pieces can be hidden and disowned. If no individual or institution possesses the authority to act without of everybody else in the room, then nobody is at fault if anything goes wrong.
“Father of American Anthropology”
Although a strong advocate of these democratic ideas, he himself exercised various forms of despotic powers of the worst kind including murder and torture when heresy was involved. Nor was Calvin advocating separation of church and state. His argument was that the combined civil and religious government ought to be in the hands of many and not the few or in the extreme case of the Papacy, one.
Spinoza was one of the most feared intellectuals in human history—feared that is by the established power structures. He is the only known person who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims—all were forbidden to read his works. He was the enemy of authority and advocated personal reason as the guide for men.
Lewis Henry Lapham is an American writer. He was the editor of the American monthly Harper's Magazine from 1976 until 1981, and from 1983 until 2006. He is the founder of Lapham's Quarterly, a quarterly publication about history and literature, and has written numerous books on politics and current affairs.
