Sir Ralf Dahrendorf Interview:Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
Page 6 of 6
Let me ask you one final question. Drawing on your experience, your career as a scholar, your work at the university, if you were addressing a group of young adults, as you actually do in your new book, what message would you like to leave them with in regard to the future world, this liberal agenda, and their preparation for it?
A very simple message, despite the word which I'm now going to use, and a very anti-cyclical message: Live with complexity. Don't try to simplify the world into one in which you live in a homogeneous ethnic environment and with very simple beliefs and convictions, because that is a world of war and destruction. The world is complicated. We've got to appreciate that it is complicated. One of my visions is a return of a sort of Gladstone approach to politics, and I am thinking of Gladstone the campaigner who gave long, long lectures, I'm almost tempted to say to his constituency, about distant parts of the world, explaining the complications of these distant parts. And, while it's very unpopular these days in view of fundamentalism and protectionism and the desire for homogeneity to say so, I think the great counter-cyclical task which the moral minorities have is to spread the message of complexity. The world isn't simple, nor should it be simple. It's rich because it's complicated. Let us somehow manage to live with that.
Sir Ralf, thank you very much for joining us today. It has been quite an experience having you here and sharing these experiences and insights with us. As a graduate student I read your work, so it's really a great honor to have you here today. And thank you very much for joining us for this Conversation on International Affairs.
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