Books, Arts & Manners: The Tyranny of Niceness

With Charity Toward None: A Fond Look at Misanthropy, by Florence King (St. Martin’s, 194 pp., $17.95)

FLORENCE King contends it’s okay to be misanthropic. We live in what she calls “the Republic of Nice,” in which it is important to appear pleasant and likable and caring, a pose that imposes strains and creates hypocrisy. “Niceness as practiced by Americans is a

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Joseph Sobran

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Alexis de Tocqueville

With Charity Toward None: A Fond Look at Misanthropy, by Florence King (St. Martin’s, 194 pp., $17.95)

FLORENCE King contends it’s okay to be misanthropic. We live in what she calls “the Republic of Nice,” in which it is important to appear pleasant and likable and caring, a pose that imposes strains and creates hypocrisy. “Niceness as practiced by Americans is a