what matters more: our enmity with China or our desire to decarbonize quickly

 --- Aniket Shah, head of ESG strategy Jefferies, quoted in The Biggest Winners in America’s Climate Law: Foreign Companies, Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2023

In context

The large investments by overseas businesses have generally been welcomed by U.S. communities, many of which have benefited for decades from spending and jobs created by foreign automakers and other companies. But some investments from Chinese companies have fueled a backlash as tensions between the two countries escalate. 

...

“What we’re seeing is foreign policy conflict with climate policy and trade policy,” Shah said. “We’re going to have to decide as a country what matters more: our enmity with China or our desire to decarbonize quickly.”

(This question could be shibboleth to distinguish between Republicans and Democrats.)

Hypocrisy is the lifeblood of politics

--- Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, quoted in How political tribalism is leading to more political hypocrisy, Christian Science Monitor, January 10, 2020

Some excerpts

But today, it seems, hypocrisy is particularly rampant – and there’s a reason. “It’s a function of our extreme partisan polarization, and really, it justifies anything,” says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “Hypocrisy is the lifeblood of politics.”

“It is pragmatic for politicians to act like hypocrites during periods of hyperpartisanship, since they otherwise might be harassed or expelled from their group for disloyalty,” writes Jay Van Bavel, an associate professor of psychology at New York University ... 

But in other ways, commonly cited examples of hypocrisy may in fact represent a misunderstanding of the people who hold seemingly contradictory views. Strong support for Mr. Trump by white Evangelicals is one case, [Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania] says.

what forms of psychological manipulation will we consider to be acceptable business models?

--- James Williams, author of Stand out of our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy (CUP 2018), speaking on the Talking Politics podcast 25 April, 2018, at timecode 24:39

The fundamental question for society to answer is, what forms of psychological manipulation will we consider to be acceptable business models.

A paradox you live with

--- Sister Gertrude, in Muriel Spark's  The Abbess of Crewe (1974)

From Chapter One, published in The Scotsman, 16 June 2018:

‘Gertrude, my excellent nun, my learned Hun, we have a problem and we don’t know what to do with it.’

‘A problem you solve,’ says Gertrude.

‘Gertrude,’ wheedles the Abbess, ‘we’re in trouble with Rome. The Congregation of Religious has started to probe. They have written delicately to inquire how we reconcile our adherence to the Ancient Rule, which as you know they find suspect, with the laboratory and the courses we are giving the nuns in modern electronics, which, as you know, they find suspect.’

‘That isn’t a problem,’ says Gertrude. ‘It’s a paradox.’

‘Have you time for a very short seminar, Gertrude, on how one treats of a paradox?’

‘A paradox you live with,’ says Gertrude, and hangs up.

Ideology - what determines how you think when you don't know you're thinkin

--- John Naughton, in Reformation Then and Now, Talking Politics podcast, 10 January 2018, at timecode 11:59

"You could define ideology as what determines how you think when you don't know you're thinking. And some things become unthinkable in any ideological climate."

See also Naughton's "95 theses about Technology"

Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously -- it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves

--- C.S. Lewis, in the essay "Democratic Education" (1944), with thanks to Pierre-Yves Saintoyant for the reference

In context:

"A mild pleasure in ragging, a determination not to be much interfered with, is a valuable brake on reckless planning and a valuable curb on the meddlesomeness of minor officials. Envy bleating "I'm as good as you", is, on the other hand, the hotbed of Fascism. You are going about to take away the one and foment the other. Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously -- it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves !!"

"Boundaries are border wars waiting to happen"

--- Deborah Stone, Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making (Third Edition, 2011) p. 184-84

Quote in context, from the last two pages of the book

In a world of continua, [conceptual] boundaries are inherently unstable. Whether they are conceptual, physical, or political, boundaries are border wars waiting to happen. At every boundary, there is a dilemma of classification: who or what belongs on each side? In politics, these dilemmas evoke intense passions because the classifications confer advantages and disadvatages, rewards and penalties, permissions and restrictions, or power and powerlessness.

. . .

Boundary tensions mya be the curse of our existence as thiiking and communal beings but political argument is our privelege. It allows us to fight our border wars with imagination and words.

"Problem definitions are stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end, involving some change or transformation"

--- Deborah Stone, Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making (Third Edition 2011) p. 158

Quote in context:

In politics, narrative stories are the principal means for defining and contesting policy problems. We don’t usually think of a policy as literature, but most definitions of policy problems have a narrative structure, however subtle. Problem definitions are stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end, involving some change or transformation. They have heroes and villains and innocent victims, and they pit the forces of evil angst the forces of good. Stories provide explanations of how the world works. These explanations are often unspoken, widely shared, and so much taken for granted that we aren’t even aware of them. They can hold a powerful grip on our imaginations and our psyches because they offer the promise of resolution for scary problems.

Stone's footnote to this paragraph cites Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (New York: Knopf, 1976).

"Law is the practice of rules in a context of deals"

--- Adam Gopnik, referring to context of Abraham Lincoln's thought, in Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life (2009), Ch. 1, Lincoln's Mind.

In context:

A love of the grease and a feel for the gist, the habit of compromise even at the cost of absolute clarity, a restatement of technical argument in emphatic simplicities, clarity achieved and helpful ambiguity sought—these were the heart of Lincoln’s style, and of his soul. They explain why we still argue about him: he said very clear things against slavery—and, for a time at least, he was ready to keep the slaves if he could find a bargain to keep the South in the Union. Law is the practice of rules in a context of deals, and Lincoln believed in both.

Curiously, Gopnik's phrase works just as well inverted, though perhaps better if Regulation is substituted as the subject: "Regulation is the practice of deals in a context of rules."

"Coal plants kill, but they only kill a few at a time, which is highly preferred by politicians"

--- Bill Gates on coal vs. nuclear power, speaking at WIRED's Disruptive by Design Business Conference, 3 May 2011, quoted in "Bill Gates: Don't dismiss nuclear energy" by JP Mangalindan, Fortune May 3, 2011
In context:

Gates suggested there's much more potential for nuclear energy, despite the recent disaster with Japan's Fukushima reactor. As he sees it, nuclear has a "factor million" of energy creation compared with coal. And as he quipped, "coal plants kill, but they only kill a few at a time, which is highly preferred by politicians."

“The catch with ardent followers is that they’ll go ardently follow something else after a short while.”

--- Walter Podrazik, co-author of the book Watching TV, on the precipitous decline of Glenn Beck's ratings, quoted in Why is Glenn Beck leaving his Fox News show?, Linda Feldmann for the Christian Science Monitor, April 6, 2011

"A neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality"

--- attributed passim to Irving Kristol, cited to Two Cheers for Capitalism (1979) at conservativeforum.org's page on Kristol.

I heard Peter Berkowitz mention it in a Philosopher's Zone program about Leo Strauss and the state of American conservatism.

I wouldn't say I've been mugged by reality yet, but I definitely feel like I'm walking in a rough neighborhood...

"If the people are to be ruled they must first be scared"

--- A. D. Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker (2008) p. 158, quoted by Walter Rodgers in his CSMonitor Commentary "Obama vs.his enemies", 21 February 2010

From Nuttall:

It is sometimes said that political leaders require a “demonised Other” to retain control of their citizens. If the people are to be ruled they must first be scared. This is very nearly the situation at the beginning of Henry V. The King desperately needs a war with France if he is to control such as Scroop and Grey.

“Good politics is repetition”

--- Senate minority leader Mitch McConnel, New York Times profile March 16, 2010, quoted by Peter Grier in his Decoder column of March 29, 2010

"The best way to achieve complete strategic surprise is to take an action that is either stupid or completely contrary to your self-interest"

--- A sign then-Deputy National Security Advisor (and current Secretary of Defense) Robert Gates had on his desk at the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, according to Richard Haass in War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars, Simon & Schuster 2009, p. 59

“Development is a goal, not a tool”

--- Sheila Herrling, Center for Global Development, quoted in a story by Jesse Zwick in The New Republic, "The Downside of 'Smart Power'", 30 November 2009, second page

Quote in context:

“Smart power,” of course, is a perfectly reasonable idea. But foreign aid is a zero-sum game. Elevating it into a central strategic instrument of our foreign policy means that something else--something noble and altruistic, something embedded in the historic mission of foreign aid--could soon be lost. Sheila Herrling of the Center for Global Development puts it succinctly: “Development,” she says, “is a goal, not a tool.” A longtime foreign aid observer relays that Clinton, aware of some of the simmering discontent at USAID, asked a group of aid experts before her confirmation what she could say or do to make the agency’s career civil servants excited again--to inspire them. She could start by making a difficult admission: that “smart power,” whatever its merits, comes with a genuine downside.

When you start making choices, you start losing friends

--- Kent Conrad, the Democratic Senate Budget Committee chairman and a leading fiscal hawk

Quoted in The Economist, Waiting for God-only-knows-what, Jan 8th 2009; about the budget deficit

In context:

"Politically, a reform that antagonises so many constituencies is hardly appetising. “When you start making choices, you start losing friends,” says Kent Conrad, the Democratic Senate Budget Committee chairman and a leading fiscal hawk. He argues the job should be handed over to a bipartisan task force. But Thomas Kahn, the top staffer on the House Budget Committee, notes that some legislators worry that such mechanisms undermine the democratic process by limiting the opportunity for amendment and debate."

Unlike Soviet propagandists, who told people what to think, Russian propagandists tell people what they want to hear

--- Georgy Satarov, formerly aide to President Boris Yeltsin, now runs the INDEM think-tank; quoted by The Economist in "Enigma variations", first article in a special report on Russia, Nov 27th 2008

Quote in context:

So far the state has not interfered in people’s personal lives. It gives them freedom to make money, consume, travel abroad, drive foreign cars and listen to any music they like. They are even free to criticise the Kremlin on radio, in print and on the internet, though not on television. And although Russia’s elections are stage-managed, the support for Mr Putin is genuine. During the war in Georgia it hit almost 90% in opinion polls. The biased television coverage plays its part, but unlike Soviet propagandists, who told people what to think, Russian propagandists tell people what they want to hear, says Georgy Satarov, who used to be an aide to a former president, Boris Yeltsin, and now runs INDEM, a think-tank. What people want to hear, especially as they are getting richer, is that their country is “rising from its knees”, sticking its flag in the Arctic Circle, winning football games and chasing the Americans out of Georgia.

We all know what to do, we just don't know how to win the election afterwards.

--- Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, cited by The Economist in the Charlemagne column, 23 Sep 2006, p. 64

The Economist continues: "For fear of losing, politicians steer clear of telling voters harsh truths. For fear of being found out, they steer clear of outright lies. Many governments end up winning by avoiding hard choices and muddling through until a crisis becomes so imminent that tough measures are unavoidable."