Cant is insincere expression of concern for others or denunciation of contrary opinion. It is harmful, infectious and when caught by enough people can destroy free thought, free speech, intelligent discourse and the very ability to recognize – and live in – reality. The eternally-immune Theodore Dalrymple diagnoses our current contagion in City Journal.

In Vino Veritas – Or, Whatever It Takes to Get the Truth Out of Such a Crew
Winston Churchill drank his way to saving the world from Nazism and, according to Alec Marsh in Spiked, the old bulldog would fit right in with certain current Parliamentarians enjoying a tipple to endure late-night sittings in Westminster. “Well, why not?” Marsh asks. “Politicians wouldn’t be human if they didn’t.” This news doesn’t, however, sit well with certain neo-puritan scolds from – you guessed it – the Green Party, which on the other hand does support providing free narcotics to welfare recipients.


