Henry Kissinger: Realism's rational actor

One consequence of realism being deeply embedded in Western culture is that it can operate effectively in fragments. The entire code can be activated any time we are reminded, e.g., that people are by nature self-interested, that law is useless without enforcement, or that testaments of common ideals are mere rhetoric. As we accept these and similar nostrums, we enter a world of states competing for power, experts capable of calculating advantages, and idealists and other amateurs counseling folly. As these beliefs cohere, they shape our attitudes, our sensitivities (or lack of them), and our political identity.