Michael Ignatieff
Michael Ignatieff
Michael Grant Ignatieff, PCis a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has held senior academic posts at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Toronto...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth12 May 1947
CountryCanada
past political wish
Political utopias are a form of nostalgia for an imagined past projected onto the future as a wish.
imagine harvard let-me
If I am not elected, I imagine that I will ask Harvard to let me back.
patriotism patriotism-and-nationalism nationalism
I distinguish, between nationalism and patriotism.
war mean thinking
The wars of the future will be fought by computer technicians and by lawyers and high-altitude specialists, and that may mean war will be increasingly abstract, hard to think about and hard to control.
multicultural-society land differences
Genocide is not just a murderous madness; it is, more deeply, a politics that promises a utopia beyond politics - one people, one land, one truth, the end of difference. Since genocide is a form of political utopia, it remains an enduring temptation in any multiethnic and multicultural society in crisis.
ideas intellectual may
An intellectual may be interested in ideas and policies for their own sake, but a politician's interest is exclusively in the question of whether an idea's time has come,
life choices feelings
One of the greatest feelings in life is the conviction that you have lived the life you wanted to live-with the rough and the smooth, the good and the bad-but yours, shaped by your own choices, and not someone else's.
politics
In politics, there's a kind of literal-mindedness. It's what you say, not what you mean, and you have to say only what you mean.
canadian-politician cleansing ethnic intervene stop
If you say that we're going to intervene to stop ethnic cleansing but we're only going to do it at 15,000 feet, you can't actually do it.
academic false life merely useless
In academic life, false ideas are merely false, and useless ones can be fun to play with.
good state ultimate
The ultimate good in a liberal state is liberty.
america armed ashamed charles clark colin defeat forces ground home norman owed returned veterans
America owed its military renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s to Vietnam. Veterans like Norman Schwartzkopf, Colin Powell, Alfred Grey, Charles Krulak, and Wesley Clark returned home angry and ashamed at their defeat and rebuilt all-volunteer, professional armed forces from the ground up.
best chance change desire fame glory life politics reasons
All the best reasons for going into politics never really change: the desire for glory and fame and the chance to do something that really matters, that will make life better for a lot of people.
acts arises justified legitimacy proceed process public recognized regard
The legitimacy of coercive acts in a democracy arises from the process by which they are justified and by the degree to which we regard decisions as rational. If the justifications proceed properly, through recognized public institutions, and if they make sense to us, they are legitimate.