ABSTRACT
Hideous poverty in the margins of massive wealth is a mark of our times, and an outrage. Or at least some take it to be outrageous, but others shrug it off as inevitable. Public outrage is a mysterious thing. To fore-ground certain crimes means ignoring others. Each generation finds something to condemn in the moral record of its immediate ancestors. The prime example of western wickedness is the slave trade, but many public figures, including Voltaire, 18th-century philanthropist and satirist, were not less esteemed for holding shares in a slave ship. Corruption of 18th-century governments drew the censure of 19th-century moralists. Nineteenth-century colonial oppression draws the condemnation of our own times. But what next?
