The idiocy is the point

“In my work I’ve sat across from many politicians [and] civil society leaders who have tweeted horrible things, signed horrible petitions. And when you sit across [from] them and ask them and poke them and scrutinise their conduct, half the time they wilt and crumble, express embarrassment and regret."

That's from a speech Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin gave to alumni of Sydney's Moriah College last December, a video recording of which was leaked to me earlier this year. 

It's an insight into our political system and the people who run it that gets more useful every day. While Ryvchin didn't name names, it isn't hard to imagine who in our current government, faced with the inconvenience of being confronted over a publicly expressed belief, would take the easy way out and renounce the belief instead of defending it.

(I can't help but think there's something distinctly Anglo about that – abandoning your political convictions not out of changing circumstances, or from gaining a new understanding, or even out of ambition, but to avoid a scene.)