"Logic, sometimes has very little to do with political action"
About this Quote
Politics is where syllogisms go to die. Mackenzie’s line carries the weary authority of someone who’s watched “good reasons” get outvoted by timing, temperament, and tribal loyalty. The understated jab is in “sometimes”: a polite qualifier that actually sharpens the indictment. He’s not claiming logic is absent; he’s saying it’s optional, invoked when useful and discarded when costly.
As a 19th-century Canadian statesman, Mackenzie lived inside a political world built on party discipline, patronage networks, regional bargaining, and the slow grind of parliamentary compromise. In that environment, “political action” isn’t the tidy endpoint of rational debate. It’s a choreography of incentives: who benefits, who loses face, who can’t afford to alienate a constituency this week. Logic may diagnose a problem, but action depends on coalition math and public mood. The subtext is pragmatic, even bruised: arguments don’t move governments nearly as much as interests do.
The phrase also deflates a comforting civic myth-that the best idea naturally rises to the top. Mackenzie is pointing to the gap between persuasion and power. Policies are rarely adopted because they’re demonstrably optimal; they’re adopted because they’re narratively saleable, emotionally legible, and strategically timed. “Logic” is a tool in the kit, not the steering wheel.
Read this way, the quote isn’t anti-reason. It’s a warning about misreading the arena: if you want change, you can’t just be right. You have to be effective.
As a 19th-century Canadian statesman, Mackenzie lived inside a political world built on party discipline, patronage networks, regional bargaining, and the slow grind of parliamentary compromise. In that environment, “political action” isn’t the tidy endpoint of rational debate. It’s a choreography of incentives: who benefits, who loses face, who can’t afford to alienate a constituency this week. Logic may diagnose a problem, but action depends on coalition math and public mood. The subtext is pragmatic, even bruised: arguments don’t move governments nearly as much as interests do.
The phrase also deflates a comforting civic myth-that the best idea naturally rises to the top. Mackenzie is pointing to the gap between persuasion and power. Policies are rarely adopted because they’re demonstrably optimal; they’re adopted because they’re narratively saleable, emotionally legible, and strategically timed. “Logic” is a tool in the kit, not the steering wheel.
Read this way, the quote isn’t anti-reason. It’s a warning about misreading the arena: if you want change, you can’t just be right. You have to be effective.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
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