Authority can all too easily pressure good people into doing nothing

WE'VE got into a mad sequence, have you noticed? Something goes wrong. Let's say it's a surgeon who whips out women's wombs. Hundreds of them. He gets nailed. Eventually. But a single nailing is never enough.

We go hunting for the less-guilty, but still-guilty. Frequently underpinning the hunt is an expectation that the still-guilty will include nuns. Nothing animates the latent love of coursing in Ireland at this time like the possibility of a bunch of old nuns getting ripped apart.

We've developed blame and belief-blame into a mad dual reflex that kicks in at the drop of a tragedy. The need to blame comes first. The need to punish a set of beliefs we no longer share is right behind it.