Reality Is A Powerful Solvent.

We Need To Start Talking About Inequality Again; We Need To Start Talking About The Inequities And Unfairnesses And The Injustices Of An Excessively Divided Society, Divided By Wealth, By Opportunity, By Outcome, By Assets And So Forth.

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.

We Know What Things Cost But Have No Idea What They Are Worth.

The Different American Experience Of The 20th Century Is Crucial Because The Lesson Of The Century For Europe, Which Essentially Is That The Human Condition Is Tragic, Led It To Have A Build A Welfare System And A Set Of Laws And Social Arrangements That Are More Prophylactic Than Idealistic. It's Not About Building Perfect Futures; It's About Preventing Terrible Pasts. I Think That Is Something That Europeans In The Second Half Of The 20th Century Knew In Their Bones And Americans Never Did, And It's One Of The Big Differences Between The Two Western Cultures.

It Does Irritate Me When I Am Described As A Controversialist And Commentator On Israel.