Reading about the riots in Britain, and, to a lesser degree, in the United States, you think of a phrase: “rioting for fun and profit.” Banfield actually said “rioting mainly for fun and profit,” but the phrase has stuck with us without the “mainly.” In any case, it is a dead-on phrase — dead-on. Unimprovable-on, and, sadly, eternal (apparently).

By the way, for years, there were basically two conservatives at Harvard, and they were both C.’s — Edward C. Banfield and Harvey C. Mansfield. Their names almost rhymed.

P.S. You would not believe the grief Banfield got for “rioting mainly for fun and profit” — for using those words. He was called a racist, a Hitler, and every other name in the book. His phrase seems perfectly unremarkable now, doesn’t it?