I often meet the assertions that Joseph Stalin restored the Russian Orthodox Church - in the midst of the WWII - to boost the patriotic feeling of the Russian people.
Are you familiar with the work of Quentin Skinner? Particularly his work on rhetoric and the importance of viewing political writings in the context of the debates in which they were offered.
I think you might agree that the human tendency to reject the contingent nature of our lives and struggles, to universalize our current struggles down to the most fact-dependent detail, is one of the great barriers to understanding of the world. The theory-saturated body of opinion that emerges from this universalizing, homogenizing process leads to a view of interests that some like to call "realism" - but it is much more a Hegelian sort of realism than the pragmatic assessment of the state of world affairs that the term might lead a modern reader to expect.
"The tides of history wash away all meaning from the actions." What a gem!
Are you familiar with the work of Quentin Skinner? Particularly his work on rhetoric and the importance of viewing political writings in the context of the debates in which they were offered.
I think you might agree that the human tendency to reject the contingent nature of our lives and struggles, to universalize our current struggles down to the most fact-dependent detail, is one of the great barriers to understanding of the world. The theory-saturated body of opinion that emerges from this universalizing, homogenizing process leads to a view of interests that some like to call "realism" - but it is much more a Hegelian sort of realism than the pragmatic assessment of the state of world affairs that the term might lead a modern reader to expect.