The Philosopher's Confession

The hardest part in the development of a philosopher is the acceptance of the first-person plural pronoun. It is so sweetly tempting to establish a little distance, as to say: the Americans do such and such, the world is this way, humanity acts thusly. Eventually, however, simple intellectual honesty compels the philosopher to admit his own culpability, and then he must speak the facts plainly: we are wrong, we are wicked, we are fools.