ALLISON responds to my Athena / Ares post. The answer to your questions, Allison, is that no, war isn’t nice, but many necessary things are not nice. In this case, I don’t think that it’s hard to tell which side is which — but that the other side thinks it’s right too is no reason not to act. The Nazis thought they were right. So did Stalin. But they weren’t, and we’re lucky that the people who opposed them didn’t throw up their hands in response to that.

And, sure, humans are fallible. But imperfect knowledge is a condition of human existence. It’s not an excuse not to act. Because even a decision not to act is based on imperfect knowledge. You have to do the best you can. People who go on for too long about the complex nature of problems either (1) just want to sound profound without taking responsibility for choosing a position; or (2) don’t really think the problems are problems.