A bureaucratic government may be lawless, but a lawful government must be bureaucratic.
Jan 252016
Ruling
In ’37 Stalin made a hash
Of party loyalists and army brass.
Decimation: One in ten are shot.
What’s the word when one in ten are not?
Jan 152016
The opposite of madness is consensus.
Jan 042016
Many nuisances, and not a few evils, ultimately trace to small groups of thoughtful, concerned citizens.
Dec 212015
What is immoral should be illegal, and what is legal is not immoral — the bookends on the shelf of vulgar errors in political philosophy.
Dec 042015
The political theorist knows where he wants to go but not how to get there, or how to stay there, having once arrived.
Nov 102015
Political disaster is always preceded by a period of intense popular interest in politics.
Nov 022015
The same ideas are used to exonerate the guilty and to punish the innocent.
Oct 272015
The government that robs Peter to pay Paul can surprisingly often rely on the support of Peter.
Oct 192015
All disputes over process are in fact over policy.
Oct 062015
The tyrant concerned for his historical reputation must concentrate his fire on the inarticulate, who don’t leave pesky memoirs behind. Kill peasants, not Jews.