A quick dark thought

Ahmadinejad visited Columbia today, a reflection:

There is a cult of sentiment in this country that proclaims that we should extend to our enemies all the rights and privileges that we enjoy, in order to prove that we deserve them. It demands a radical equality of principles, and a poverty of discernment. No longer do our higher institutions require a student to perceive a hierarchy of ideas; indeed to measure is to judge, and the guardians of higher education will have no judgment in their house.

It seems to me that we find ourselves in an intellectual climate similar to that Plato existed in ancient Athens. Who will win this time, philosophy or the sophist?