Straight thoughts 39

July 31, 2000

I wrote that the Liberals have discovered a new virtue: “The virtue of the middle ground”. Let me elaborate:

Moderation and openness, the ability not to react impulsively to events, but to analyze the facts using different sources, before taking a decision, is what makes a man a wise man.

Middle ground or compromise approaches to decision making is what may make a man temporarily successful, but it also leads him to corruption.

Thomas Paine said it very concisely:
"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice."

If the Liberals consider a middle ground approach a 'virtue', this may explain some of their apparent success, but also their visible corruption and dishonesty:
Not only they do not seek what is right on any specific issue, but they are abandoning the concept of right and wrong altogether, in order to deceive most of the people and keep them reasonably satisfied, most of the times.