Topic
Agreement in this collection is most valuable when it is hardest to achieve. Shakespeare on listening widely but committing narrowly is the foundational social wisdom: agreement given too easily is not agreement but compliance, which is something different. Twain on the majority as a signal to reconsider is the democratic paradox: consensus is often the symptom of intellectual conformity rather than collective wisdom. Napoleon on history being lies agreed upon and the two forces that unite men being fear and interest gives agreement its most skeptical account: what looks like consensus is usually the product of pressure rather than conviction. Baudelaire on men who get along best with women being those who can get along without them is agreement-as-negotiating-strength. What the collection argues is that genuine agreement is rare and valuable precisely because it is not the default condition. The default condition is misunderstanding, and agreement that acknowledges this is more reliable than agreement that ignores it.