On Mothers and Political Violence

Parents and politicians alike pretend we can do without moral norms

Et in Arcadia ego: this month’s essays have mostly concerned how things that seem too good to be true often are too good to be true. Utopian communities fail, the rise of empathy in public life has normalised the use of weeping as a political weapon, and the welfare state undermined a great swathe of previously robust civil society.

But in case you thin…