![]() ![]() It seems fair to say that a readiness to amend and reconsider the case being made is exactly what separates a genuine reforming instinct from a merely self-righteous one. Those with the moral courage to protest the Vietnam War sometimes became blinded to the reality of the North Vietnamese government-and on and on. ![]() Progressive Era trade unionists, fending off corporate thugs, could steer into thuggish forms of Stalinism. ![]() Crusaders against widespread alcoholism (as acute a problem in 1910 as the opioid epidemic is today) advanced to the folly of Prohibition, which created a set of organized-crime institutions whose effects have scarcely just passed. A sense of indignation and a good cause lead first to moral urgency, and then soon afterward to repetition, whereby the reformers become captive to their own rhetoric, usually at a cost to their cause. Reformers are famously prey to the fanaticism of reform. A focus on drug offenders and private prisons can distract from the larger problem. ![]()
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