Of course engaging emotions is something easier said than done. But as Smith points out:
The proper response to this is not to lapse into the rationalist whine about people being governed by their passions and keep hoping they'll be be "rational" like us (we're not). Rather, the point is to harness, direct, and channel the passions. Indeed, if you just paint the passions as "irrational," you've already lost.
A caveat: Lilla wants to put (most of) the giants of the history of ideas on a pedestal and he's being meticulous with his language which is something you have to watch out for when reading him. True, most of them didn't envision this homo sapien, this rational man; that's a myth, but their view of most of the population isn't nearly as in line with the today's insights and emerging consensus as he's making them out to sound (surprisingly being highly charitable to the religious thinkers in the process). Most were either elitist snobs who believed they were rational and all the others were little more than animals, or they subscribed to some form of original sin and believed in providential grace. Also the comment about the 19th Century is misleading, as especially this idealistic conception of many emerged in the 17th & 18th centuries (Age of Reason and Enlightenment), and for the same reasons he's loathe to describe them in said fashion it holds true for characterizing the fruition of their ideas as academically untenable and irresponsible. Moreover, regardless of their view of humanity's condition, their strategy would either be to shrug one's shoulders and pessimistically accept the world's fate or a strategy more in line with Obama (cooler heads prevail; progress via incorporation of rationality), although some would take a line more congruent w/ Lilla's thinking (if you can't beat it, join it). Finally, I'm not sure how reflective two decontextualized quotes can be of Obama's understanding (*shrug*), I mean does anyone seriously believe that a person can become president without understanding something of passion? That's a side-note to the excellent article.
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