If people did not indulge in such abject evasions as the claim that some contemptible liar means wellthat a mooching bum cant help itthat a juvenile delinquent needs lovethat a criminal doesnt know any betterthat a power-seeking politician is moved by patriotic concern for the public goodthat communists are merely agrarian reformersthe history of the past few decades, or centuries, would have been much different.