If you want war, work for justice
17th April 2009
David Friedman, as always, gets right to the core issue.
I think it is a more plausible slogan than the usual version. If you and I disagree because I want an outcome more favorable to me and you want an outcome more favorable to you, there is room for compromise—as we see whenever people bargain over the price of a house. But if we disagree because I see what I want as just and the alternative as unjust and you see it the other way around, compromise looks to both of us like moral treason.
There you have modern American politics. There you have modern American foreign policy. Hell, there you have the fargin Civil War.