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SilasBarta comments on Rationality Quotes: February 2011 - Less Wrong
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The same reign of terror that occurred under Robespierre and Hitler occurred back then in the fifties, as it occurs now. You must realize that there is very little actual courage in this world. It's pretty easy to bend people around. It doesn't take much to shut people up, it really doesn't. In the fifties all I had to do was call a guy up on the telephone and say, "Well, I think your wife would like to know about your mistress."
An upvote to the first person to identify the author of that quote.
So, wait, was it that:
a) Most men worth influencing in the 50s had a mistress his wife didn't know about?
or that:
b) Most men worth influencing in the 50s understood that the guy calling him could persuade the wife that there was a mistress irrespective of whether there was really a mistress?
Or perhaps that they believed they had a mistress, whether they did or didn't?
</joke>
I don't know which it was.
But I'd say that you're seeing the trees, not the forest.
The major point of the quote was that there's a lack of courage in the world, the rest of the quote is just examples.
The courage to allow one's infidelity to be exposed (let alone falsely exposed) isn't what most people have in mind when they think of courage.
b) fits in better with the reign of terror metaphor.