"a political community no longer capable of distinguishing between engaging an idea and holding an opinion—and hence bereft of a culture of reflection, imagination, and 'negative capability' (as John Keats had called it)—is almost certainly in a phase of advanced decline."

     Thomas Pfau, Minding the modern:  human agency, intellectual traditions, and responsible knowledge (Notre Dame, IN:  University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 58.