Daily Inspiration Quote by Abba Eban

Consensus, in Abba Eban's hands, is less a democratic ideal than a stage-managed hymn: a roomful of voices producing harmony precisely because no one is willing to sing a solo. The line lands with a diplomat's practiced dryness. It flatters the idea of unity while quietly indicting it as a performance - a collective recitation detached from private conviction.

Eban is diagnosing a familiar pathology of institutions, especially the kind he lived in: cabinets, parliaments, the UN, summit communiques where language is engineered to offend no one and therefore commit to nothing. "In chorus" evokes not just agreement but discipline, rehearsal, the social pressure to keep time. The sting is in the second half: the group voice becomes a mask for individual doubt. Consensus, then, isn't the sum of beliefs; it's the product of incentives - careers, alliances, face-saving, the fear of being the spoiler.

The subtext is about responsibility. When everyone signs on, no one owns the decision. Diplomatic consensus can be a moral laundering machine: it turns conflicted, self-interested positions into a clean, unanimous statement. Eban isn't arguing for permanent dissent so much as warning that unanimity is often an alibi.

Coming from a statesman associated with high-stakes negotiation in Israel's early decades, the remark carries an insider's skepticism about procedural victories. It suggests that the most dangerous agreements are the ones that feel smooth, because friction is where genuine belief - and genuine accountability - shows up.