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'...an absorbing (and beautifully written) study that deserves a verywide audience.'- Joshua Muravchik'...an erudite account of where [the] vision [of individual liberty] comesfrom, why some ideologues set themselves against it, and how ourcontemporaries have ceased to treasure it.'- Christopher Caldwell'Bolkestein exposes today’s fashionable, yet dangerous ideas, doinga great service not only to Europe but indeed to the whole of Westerncivilization.'- Ayaan Hirsi AliThe dangers of intellectuals and their ideas in politics have rarely beenwritten about by politicians themselves. This is not surprising, for fewpoliticians are up to the task. However, Frits Bolkestein is a notableexception, bringing rare if not unique qualifi cations to this examination.Not only has he held national and international offi ce in Europe, but hehas also studied, read, taught and published broadly.The thesis of The Intellectual Temptation is simple but penetrating:intellectuals’ ideas are problematic as political ideas because they areoften neither derived from nor falsifi able by experience. These ideasare frequently dreams attempting to become reality through powerpolitics.There is also a cultural problem. Intellectuals are pack animals, lookingto one another for approval. This affects the quality of their ideas,as they are susceptible to fashionable ideology and group pressure- frequently attracted to ideas that are appealing rather than sound.Very few of them are brave enough to stand against the prevailingorthodoxy.Beginning with a history of ideology, Bolkestein traces a nearly 300year trend of bad ideas making worse politics, sometimes disastrouslyso. From his own experience he offers a vision of a politics of prudence,proper pragmatism and Classicism as a way out of the 'intellectualtemptation' that we have fallen under.
