On the Right

As one would expect, the point is being made (notably in the New York Times on Monday, March 31) that what we are so heated about China’s doing is no different, really, from what the United States does more or less as a matter of course. The headline for the well-researched story by John M. Broder is, “Political Meddling by Outsiders: Not New for U.S.” There follow accounts of American interventions, overt and covert, in other nations in the world ever since the end of the Second World War. The question is raised: Why should we be indignant over Chinese interventions given that we do the same kind of thing?

Never, ever, was the Latin maxim more applicable: Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi. What’s okay for Jove to do isn’t okay for a cow to do. The Latin was presumably an early exploration of basic ethical distinction-making. During the Cold War, faced on one occasion with a sally in moral equivalence, I put it this way: There is a difference between pushing an old lady into the way of an oncoming bus, and pushing an old lady out of the way of an oncoming bus. It simply will not do to say in both cases that you are pushing an old lady around.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

Featured Tags

As one would expect, the point is being made (notably in the New York Times on Monday, March 31) that what we are so heated about China’s doing is no different, really, from what the United States does more or less as a matter of course. The headline for the well-researched story by John M. Broder is, “Political Meddling by Outsiders: Not New for U.S.” There follow accounts of American interventions, overt and covert, in other nations in the world ever since the end of the Second World War. The question is raised: Why should we be indignant over Chinese interventions given that we do the same kind of thing?

Never, ever, was the Latin maxim more applicable: Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi. What’s okay for Jove to do isn’t okay for a cow to do. The Latin was presumably an early exploration of basic ethical distinction-making. During the Cold War, faced on one occasion with a sally in moral equivalence, I put it this way: There is a difference between pushing an old lady into the way of an oncoming bus, and pushing an old lady out of the way of an oncoming bus. It simply will not do to say in both cases that you are pushing an old lady around.