How should we begin to make amends for raising a generation obsessed with the pursuit of material wealth and indifferent to so much else?

My generation those who were students in the late 60s was always, in the words of the Who, talking about our generation. That's what we thought of ourselves, as the most important thing since sliced bread. And the "we" that we meant was really the Western Europeans and American generation. And as I think back I suppose I have a sense of guilt on behalf of my generation, a sense that we were terribly provincial and didn't understand the really important stuff that was going on in Eastern Europe.

We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society or a better world? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. We must learn once again to pose them.

The East European small countries have a sense of betrayal, of having been forgotten by Western leaders.

Apparently, the line you take on Israel trumps everything else in life.

I can still boss people around. I can still write. I can still read. I can still eat, and I can still have very strong views.

I grew up in a world where the social democratic state was the norm, not the exception.