Sublime

This explains why many young people, after having worked for the French government for the inaugural years of their careers, leave to join the private sector. For them, something has been lost along the way. There was a time when you could make a difference by working for the government. Now it appears the action is taking place elsewhere, far from

Starting in the 1960s, the social and legal institutions of America were remade to try to eliminate unfair choices by people in positions of responsibility. The new legal structures reflected a deep distrust of human authority in even its more benign forms—a teacher’s authority in the classroom, or a manager’s judgments about who’s doing the job, o

If we want high morale, we must have high standards. If we want high standards, the law must be enforced fairly and firmly. There will be no squatters or beggars sleeping on our pavements doing their ablutions in our drains. People will be housed and cared for. Hawkers will not clog up the main streets. There will be thorough and proper cleansing e

Americans look to our GDP as a report card on the performance of government. But how might we evaluate government’s performance on its moral charge, found in a government’s original social contract to actively care for the well-being of its society?

Where the harm is almost certain, Congress does nothing. Where the harm is at best contested, Congress races to the rescue.

The fundamental challenge twentieth-century organizations face in the twenty-first is uselessness: an inability to add to the Common Wealth.