The tyranny of ideology

Berlin

Here is one of the best lectures of all time.  It should be required listening for anyone interested in better understanding the world - or trying to change it.  I recently listened to it for the second time; it never gets old.

The lecture is by Isaiah Berlin, delivered at Oxford University in 1955.  The subject is Alexander Herzen, and more specifically his masterpiece My Past and Thoughts, written in 1868.

Herzen

Once you listen to the lecture, you may want to read the book, too, which is fabulous.  There is no more powerful inoculation against our tendency to fall in love with silver bullets and all-encompassing frameworks and ideologies.

Listen to this episode