“All that it takes for prejudice to prosper is for good men to do nothing.” As you can see in this detail, this is an homage to Edmund Burke, who famously said “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”While I agree that there are prejudices which are not good things (racisms is a good example of "not good prejudices"), the way "prejudice" is used in Universities comes to encompass moral opinions which Universities disparage (to put it lightly): they say "tolerate anything" and yet then persecute those who disagree. : ( Anyways, the ironic thing is what Edmund Burke himself said about "prejudices": this is one of those nuspeak-twisted words that was once full of sagacity, used to mean those things which had been examined and judged according to knowledge and experience, with careful consideration: and this is still the way it is used when it is wrested to blur ignorant and bigotted opinions with moral ones that have carefully thought over and issue, and judged it, despite pc "moral consensus" and preferential metaphysical modernist disconnection from history. Here's what Edmund Burke said, I found this ironic. Happy reading:
We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages. Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them. If they find what they seek, and they seldom fail, they think it more wise to continue the prejudice, with the reason involved, than to cast away the coat of prejudice, and to leave nothing but the naked reason; because prejudice, with its reason, has a motive to give action to that reason, and an affection which will give it permanence. Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, sceptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.–Edmund Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution.
[Below Added 2011-12-24]
Interestingly they say Burke is famous for saying "all that is necessary..." yet I wondered at the lack of citation anywhere, started looking online, and stumbled upon a like minded (I do not think I have ever published one, but I have like this author sat down, put a bunch of forms of a quote supposed to have been made by someone to paper or screen, then listed the various sources in which I could find them, whether on or off line, under each respective form, in search of citations and clues to where I might find an origin) reviewer, http://tartarus.org/martin/essays/burkequote.html. I dissent from statements that commonly known quotes need no be cited, since often they do else false attributions spread like cancer, and assertions that quotes that are genuine will only find a few deviant forms, knowing people, but enjoy the gist of his page.
I qualify that with stating that allusions to an author using his words, such as the examples given by this author, "workers of the world unite" (Marx) and "give us this day our daily bread" (Jesus) need not necessarily be cited, even in fact mythological conceptions and associations, e.g. a writer knowing that "all that is necessary..." is wrongly attributed to Burke, might nonetheless use those words because they express what he wants to say, and does not do wrong by using them, or even by failing in every instance of use to tell everyone they are not by Burke.
Anyway, there is an acronym used by those who haunt "Slashdot", a forum for nerds to discuss nerdy news, "RTFA", which means "Read the ****ing article", which is used commonly not only towards those who comment without reading the article, common because people go there to discuss not just the articles linked to but related things or whatever comes up in discussion, but even by many of themselvs after making stupid statements about the things being discussed they might not have if they had read the article, e.g. "I know, I know, RTFA". I just realized that I saw that blog post and skimmed the first section, then wrote this post. I then went to a copy of "Reflections..." and put down the quote. Upon going over the entire blog post, however, I find that its author...writes the same gist! I.e. dumb poster, given Burke's defense of prejudices. So "I know, I know, RTA".
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