In his most recent column (Even the Food in His Mouth! &c.), Nordlinger relates some of the substance of a converstation he had with a Fayetteville, NC cabdriver. Originally from Nigeria, the driver had a few things to say about corruption, and one struck me as particularly insightful. Nordlinger writes:
All over, he said, bribes are demanded and paid, openly. Wrongdoing is constantly ignored, papered over, accommodated. “You can’t just blame the politicians and the bureaucrats,” he said. “The people allow it to happen,” year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation.Indeed. As my father once said, "A government can only enforce those laws that the vast majority of people will self-enforce." In other words, moral order in a society starts with the individual's self-control.
Nordlinger also congratulates the singer-songwriter Jude for his grand coming out. I think it's fun to watch how people react when they discover for the first time that I'm conservative, but that doesn't diminish the very high costs some--particularly in the entertainment industry and academia--face. I remember cringing every time I heard that "dissent is the highest form of patriotism" during the last 8 years because the subtext always seemed to be "I shouldn't bear any costs for criticizing my government." But costs come as a result of choices we make; that's a fact and we all have to face it sooner or later.
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