"In order not to be defeatist, in order not to participate in the Kulturpessimismus or ‘Eeyorism’ that is the self-defeating speciality of the intellectual left, in order to be affirmative and even a little optimistic, I think we have to acknowledge that such a conception of politics requires an experience of empowerment, an empowerment that is irreducibly ethical . My claim is that at the heart of a radical politics there has to be a meta-political ethical moment that provides the force or propulsion into political action (not non-political or pre-political, but meta-political). If ethics without politics is empty, then politics without ethics is blind."
Link: Political Theory: Essays.
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