There’s a line from Alan Furst’s 1930s-era spy novel Dark Star that has stuck with me: “We need people who can do good, and not get caught.” It came to mind again today as I read this WSJ article on social impact bonds: at one level it’s inspiring, but at another, it feels like we’re trying to give ourselves permission to do good by wedging it into market economics.
George Monbiot: “People with strong intrinsic values must cease to be embarrassed by them. We should argue for the policies we want not on the grounds of expediency but on the grounds that they are empathetic and kind; and against others on the grounds that they are selfish and cruel.”
http://www.monbiot.com/2010/10/11/the-values-of-everything/