In my quest for a more realistic understanding of liberty's place in history and the contemporary world, I have come to appreciate Michael Oakeshott as a resourceful, inspiring and like-minded fount of insight.
The best conversationalists, Oakeshott maintains in “The Voice of Poetry,” have the elements of self-restraint required by nomocracy: they observe certain conventions of moderation and humility, they listen to the contributions of others, and they are generally less concerned with advancing their own interests than with facilitating the conversation itself. Of course, all we have to do is to reflect on our own conversations to realize how rare such qualities are in actual human beings. They are just as rare, if not more so, in political life, where the attractions of power, honor and wealth are infinitely greater.
Read the entire piece in which Elizabeth Corey provides an excellent introduction to one of the great thinkers of liberty, Michael Oakeshott.
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