William Butler Yeats Quotes
This statement is eerily similar to the statements of some of the Islamic fanatic fundamentalists 80 years later.
He was contrasting the Islamic narrowness of today as compared with Islamic thinking at the height of the intellectual and scientific of 1000 years ago. See {623631}. Islamic modernists like Serageldin are many among the educated Muslims but their views are often drowned out by the violence and extremist statements of the fundamentalists.
It was reasonable and moderate statements like this that caused the right wing of the Republican Party to abandon McCain when he ran for president, He did appeal to many moderates and independents because of the statements he made opposing the extremes such as this one.
Rand was wrong about the timing. Extremism per se as an evil is not a new political phenomenon. It was forcefully propounded by Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics and other works. Many other political philosophers have argued that moderation in politics is good and extremism is not.
- Born: June 13, 1865
- Died: January 28, 1939
- Nationality: Irish
- Profession: Poet
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.
