American society in recent years has been imitating behavior patterns that have produced negative - and sometimes catastrophic - consequences in many other countries around the world.

What does 'economic justice' mean, except that you want something that someone else produced, without having to produce anything yourself in return?

What the political left, even in democratic countries, share is the notion that knowledgeable and virtuous people like themselves have both a right and a duty to use the power of government to impose their superior knowledge and virtue on others.

The talkers and writers resent being left on the sidelines by the doers.

All that makes earlier times seem simpler is our ignorance of their complexities.

In various countries and times, leaders of groups that lagged behind, economically and educationally, have taught their followers to blame all their problems on other people - and to hate those other people.

Anyone who does not understand the utter cynicism of politics does not understand politics.