Interesting. I post a link to that article, then find a thread on MeFi, talking about it, where Jessamyn has posted a comment that's not entirely the firebrand liberal/libertarian response you (me, I suppose) might expect.

I pretty much agree with her points, but I think the point in the original article about lying becoming the norm in America is what really hit home with me (although I admit that the part about protecting the pregnant wife struck home hard as well).

The fact is that everybody - from the most liberal voices in that thread (who allude to Reverend Martin Niemoller's quote) to Trent Lott, who stepped down amidst his own hinting that people had it in for him and seemed to believe that most of the outraged voices raised against him were outraged simply because of something foolish he said at a birthday party - we're all no longer addressing the truth of any matter. Instead, we're circling around it like hungry street dogs warily eyeing each other over a discarded T-bone. We're tossing out kneejerk platitudes like they're a substitute for real discourse.


I'm not a big guy on New Year's resolutions. but it seems to me like I should try hard to make this world a better place in the coming year, starting with my immediate sphere and onward and outward.


How? I dunno, but I figure trying to strip these layers from the arguments at hand is as good a place as any to start.