Our Political Philosophy

In my recent post What Makes a Liberal?, I mentioned that most people do not make radical changes to their political philosophies as they make their way through their lives. There are, of course, widespread exceptions.

I’m reminded of an interview with a guy whose life’s work was executing criminals, via methods ranging from hanging to the arrangement of firing squads to the gas chamber to lethal injection to electrocution.  The interviewer asked which method he preferred, to which he immediately replied, “The chair. The lights simply go out.”

After many decades, though well before retirement age, he quit.  His reasoning?  “Life is precious,” he said.

Such a realization comes better late than never.