Therein lies the scandal: the scandal for well-to-do people unable to accept that their birth, their age, or their science has to bow before the law of chance; scandal too for those men of God who would have us all be democrats on the condition that we avow having had to kill a father or a shepherd for it, and hence that we are infinitely guilty, are in inexpiable to this father.

Hatred of Democracy is a black mass of devil's advocates, Jacques Rancière constructs arguments quite convincingly only to topple them like a suave, Gucci-trimmed Immanuel of the lecture circuit. The premise of this disturbing work is the antidemocratic ground swell of the GOP and myriad conservative and anti-immigration groups in Europe. Such proceeds with a gradual escalation of terms and intensity. Suddenly Rancière supplants this mention of [b:Les penchants criminels de l'Europe democratique|15718738|Les penchants criminels de l'Europe democratique|Jean-Claude Milner|/assets/nocover/60x80.png|21390324], THIS IS AN IED, the thesis of such is that Jews had to be exterminated so that the ties of kinship embodied by such would be eliminated and a bureaucratic godless democracy could ensue. That just sounds crazy. Google Milner and Criminal Inclinations: there isn't much there outside of anti-defamation sites which suggest such "scholarship" constitutes evidence of sorts. I commend Rancière for including such here.

The book concludes with distinctions between the rights of men and the rights of citizens: the former becomes more a projection than anything else. The latter is likewise subject and vulnerable, but damn, it keeps most of the wolves from one's door and remember the wonky vote in Parliament over the airstrikes against al-Asasd. It is this uncertainty which maddens, especially those that covet priviledge and power. It can also inspire.

But among those who know to share with anybody and everybody the equal power of intelligence, it can conversely inspire, and hence joy.