…if we take an active part in politics, we must avoid the intellectual’s temptation to be dogmatic. Knowing that the world is always changing, that the truth today becomes the falsehood tomorrow and that the finest constitution we can devise may, in a hundred years, become an engine of tyranny, we must regard all political structures, theories and parties as provisional. But at the same time, we must not turn this into an excuse for doing nothing. We may not know very much, but we do know something, and while we must always be prepared to change our minds, we must act as best we can in the light of what we do know. (W. H. Auden, “Effective Democracy,” May 1939)