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Description | Sep 28 2005

I understand why people do it. And I don’t hold myself above them. I would do it too, in dire enough circumstances. Perhaps not as quickly or blithely, but still. My wrath is reserved for those who sell the lie and those who profit from it.

When defending the practice, its advocates—buyers and sellers alike—repeat the same arguments, often using the same language. It’s spooky and unsettling. I’m often reminded of those scenes in The Manchurian Candidate in which various characters, all former members of a platoon ambushed during the war, offer the same description of their cruel, unfeeling captain: “Raymond Shaw is the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”