ABSTRACT
But what this means, now that varies. Up until the 19th century, the Popes always held the opinion that the oh-so-practical institution of slavery could be reconciled with the notion of human dignity and that it thus corresponded to natural law. Which does nothing to prevent today's Pope from pretending that his Church has always been the champion of the disfranchised. Mr. Brezhnev and Co. have never had difficulties presenting their personal family vacations in palaces on the Black Sea taken over from the czars as the expression of revolutionary progress. The New World Order of the U.S. is valid when the oh-so-democratic rule of the Kuwaiti royals is threatened, not when self-determination in East Timor is at stake. You, Sir Thomas, pose the question of morality — how dreary. I see only interests everywhere, especially when the lips fairly drip with the salve of values and ideals. And when I hear o f 'alternative goals', I only ask who wants to sleep with the ruler now."
