He led a life of intense activism and intense meditation.
Throughout, he worried about humanity’s desire and capacity for freedom. Here’s a good interview with him.
When Mr UD was working for the United Nations in East Timor, he got to know, a bit, Dahrendorf’s daughter Nicola, who was also working there.
From this interview: “[A]s Director of the London School of Economics, [I] have always regarded it as my job to protect academics from the obsession with realities, even the obsession with funds. That is to say, if you do administer, if you are in charge of an academic institution, you really have to see to it that those who are there as academics can do their job. So you have to relieve them of some of the burden of living in the real world.”