After reading his letter, I must conclude that what seemed to be a mere failure to see (Kant's Nichtverstehen) is in fact a terrified refusal to know.
The minute a new one strikes, the leaders we trust find themselves in an unending refusal to know why he or she did it, even when the reasons are obvious.
In the absence of other radical projects to challenge the status quo, ignorance – or, rather, the informed refusal to know – can be a powerful antidote to the efforts to reduce everything to a knowable price whose very existence already formats citizens into consumers.
If there's one thing that distinguishes modernity, however, it's not its vitality or its diversity but its refusal to know its place.
He also cites that despite a brief period during the 1960s when Thomas was considered a cultural icon, that the poet has been marginalized in critical circles due to his exuberance, in both life and work, and his refusal to know his place.
Still, it is always touching to see, a mark of courage and generosity, a refusal to depend on what they know.
In childhood, it was much more a refusal to sleep, because I didn't know where we went to — the usual kind of terror of night.
She argues, not unreasonably, that most people instinctively know it is between a refusal to compromise on excellence and tipping into abusive or bullying language or behaviour.
John Paul II wasn't disgraced for his refusal to punish known abusers, including a priest who abused over 2000 children, he was beatified.
His refusal to make known the gender of the person to whom his affections were aimed was, he reasoned, out of a desire to "universalise" his poetry.
