@blatham,
blatham wrote:
Quote:Perhaps so. However it is demonstrably true.
It's a meaningless and valueless formulation. "Everyone breaks the law sometimes". Demonstrably true. Therefore, what? Charles Manson is to be regarded as in the same category as yourself?
Well I nope not. However, I note that in this instances the differences are in the perceived characters of the men involved, and not their relative circumstances.
In short, to use time honored Catholic termonology you are assuming that the existence of opportunity and temptation makes sin inevitable, and that virtue lies only in the absence of those things. I'm suggesting the opposite: that if one has great power, opportunity can always be created and only personal virture (and direct enforcement) prevents sin.
My example of Maduro in Venezuela is entirely apt here.
There is some statistical merit in your suggestion; a man living nest to a brothel may be more likely to lie with a whore than another, but we (and other countries) have only one president at a time and we choose them based on their perceived chasracters. Some choices are later found to have been wise: some not.
