Peter Sloterdijk Quote

With this project, Plato bears witness to an intellectual unrest in the human park, which could never again be entirely pacified. Ever since the Politikos and the Politeia [The Republic], there have been discourses in the world that speak of the human community as of a zoological park that is at the same time a theme park. Keeping human beings in parks or cities from now on appears to be a zoöpolitical task. Whatever purports to be a reflection on politics is in truth a fundamental reflection on rules for the operation of human parks. If there is a dignity of the human being that merits being expressed in philosophical reflection, then this is above all because human beings are not only kept in political theme parks, but keep themselves there. Human beings are self-nurturing, self-tending beings that—wherever they live—produce parks around themselves. Whether in city parks, national parks, state parks, or eco-parks—everywhere, human beings must form an opinion about how their self-maintenance is to be regulated.