Faces of Moderation:
The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes

by aurelian craiutu
penn, 304 pages, $59.95

Everyone is orthodox to himself.” This famous phrase from Locke’s Letter Concerning Toleration might aptly be rewritten as “Everyone is moderate to himself.” For who really thinks himself an extremist? No doubt there can be cachet in identifying as a radical, but even the radical believes that his radicalism is the right position to hold. The world may have gone crazy, but each thinks himself the moderate, balanced survivor. If the person who passes me at 90 miles per hour is insane, and the one who creeps along at a glacial pace is clueless, then I am the good driver.

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