On Sun, 29 Jun 2008, Chris Brooke wrote:
>> That reminds me of a comment I once heard attributed to Trotsky - dunno
>> if it's an accurate attribution: "You may not care about politics, but
>> politics cares about you."
>
> It's more familiar in a slightly different version, attributed to
> Trotsky, though I've no idea what the original source is:
>
> "You may not be interested in the dialectic, but the dialectic is
> interested in you."
It's even less snappy in the original French:
http://www.marx.org/francais/trotsky/livres/defmarx/dma5.htm
<quote>
Burnham peut bien ne pas reconnaître la dialectique, la dialectique, elle, reconnaît Burnham, c'est-à-dire étend jusqu'à lui le champ de son influence.
<quote>
From Léon Trotsky, "Defense du Marxisme: L'opposition petite-bourgeoise dan le socialist workers party"
As for the original politics quote, it was said, but not by Trotsky. AFAICT, the same month Trotsky published his line buried in a long sectarian pamphlet (October 1940, the month of the Battle of Britain), JB Priestly, in his radio postscript to the nation, said "You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you."
And for some reason, it's been attributed to Trotsky ever since, both in the original and in the alternative form of "You might not be interested in the War, but the War is interested in you."
Michael