The latest issue of First Things includes Joseph Bottum?s appreciation of the late Irving Kristol. I particularly enjoyed this passage detailing Kristol?s preferred approach to public policy:
?The legitimate question,? he wrote, ?to ask about any program is, ?Will it work??? And, in part, it showed itself in the humility he demanded of idea-mongers: ?If your aims are modest,? he once said, ?you can accomplish an awful lot. When your aims become elevated beyond a reasonable level, you not only don?t accomplish much, you can cause a great deal of damage.? Thus, he insisted, ?It is the self-imposed assignment of neoconservatives to explain to the American people why they are right, and to the intellectuals why they are wrong.?
Hmm. Asking politicians to exercise humility. I?ve heard that before.
