“A little people. A silly people,” is T. E. Lawrence’s scathing assessment of the Arabs he first meets. Today, it is we of the West who are in grave danger of becoming a little people. We are already a silly people.

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Punk rock philosopher. Liberalist contrarian. Grumpy old bastard. I grew up in a generational-Labor-voting family. I kept the faith long after the political left had abandoned it. In the last decade...