Avoiding public life reveals weakness, not superior moral worth

Evidence

In spite of Bismarck’s dictum that “politics corrupts character,” however, this aloofness does not by itself imply that these abstinent individuals are generally more valuable than are more public-minded persons. It rather reveals a certain weakness and lack of confidence in his higher elements, if the individual does not dare descend far enough toward the social level to be prepared for the fight against the social level which is always a fight for it. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2000

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the Romantic view of the aloof individual; connects to Simmel’s wider argument about freedom vs. membership and could be contrasted with the ‘I am their leader, therefore I must follow them’ paradox of leadership. — connects to: Avoiding public-spirited speech denies citizens practice in public-spirited thinking. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1718; Political responsibility requires abandoning the fantasy of escaping human forms of life — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 356