[lbo-talk] Rieff on humanitarian intervention

[Shane Taylor]

Shane Taylor wrote:
> "We must be aware of the dangers which lie in our most generous wishes.
> Some paradox of our nature leads us, when once we have made our fellow
> men the objects of our enlightened interest, to go on to make them the
> objects of our pity, then of our wisdom, ultimately of our coercion."
>
> -- Lionel Trilling

Michael Pollak wrote:
> That's a great summing up of Aid business.  Would
> you have a cite for it handy?

It's a gorgeous quote for summing up many things!

I found it in Joan Didion's essay "On Morality", which is in her
_Slouching Towards Bethlehem_ collection.  The book doesn't give any
further cite, only "Lionel Trilling once wrote".  :-(

-- Shane

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