As Citizens Of A Free Society, We

The Pleasures Of Mental Agility Are Much Overstated, Inevitably - As It Now Appears To Me - By Those Not Exclusively Dependent Upon Them.

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 Worry That We Have Forgotten That The De-ideologized, De-politicized, Uncontentious Public Space Of The Last 50 Years As Europeans Have Experienced It Is Not The Normal Human Condition. We Shall Be Sorry To Have Abandoned A Little Too Quickly The Institutions That Were Set Up By Our Parents And Grandparents To Protect Themselves Against A Return Of The Bad Old World. Because The Bad Old World Can Still Come Back To Haunt You.

If We Have Learned Nothing Else From The 20th Century, We Should At Least Have Grasped That The More Perfect The Answer, The More Terrifying Its Consequences. Incremental Improvements Upon Unsatisfactory Circumstances Are The Best That We Can Hope For, And Probably All We Should Seek.

Love Consists In Leaving The Loved One Space To Be Themselves While Providing The Security Within Which That Self May Flourish.