Thursday, September 8, 2022

Inaction as a Criterion of Greatness

It seems to me that a prejudice in favor of political action is a fundamental and unjustified human bias. It makes us celebrate leaders who fight wars and engage in bold government activity without due consideration of the value of those activities. Since government inaction is generally preferable to action, then, as a general rule, the less active the political leader, the higher they score in my book. By that metric, Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge are two of the greatest American presidents, and Henry III and Elizabeth II are two of the greatest English monarchs. R.I.P.