It's just a couple of days until the opening night of Sub Pontio Pilato, and I ran across this great quotation:
The intriguing thing about Pilate is the degree to which he tried to do the good thing, rather than the bad. He commands our moral attention not because he was a bad man, but because he was so nearly a good man. One can imagine him agonising, seeing that Jesus had done nothing wrong, and wishing to release him. Just as easily, however, one can envisage Pilate's advisors telling him of the risks, warning him not to cause a riot or inflame Jewish opinion. It is a timeless parable of political life.It is possible to view Pilate as the archetypal politician, caught on the horns of an age-old political dilemma. We know he did wrong, yet his is the struggle between what is right and what is expedient that has occurred throughout history. The Munich Agreement of 1938 was a classic example of this, as were the debates surrounding the Great Reform Act of 1832 and the Corn Laws. And it is not always clear, even in retrospect, what is in truth, right. Should we do what appears to be principled or what is politically expedient? Do you apply a utilitarian test or what is morally absolute?
[Tony Blair, interview, Sunday Telegraph, 7 April 1996]
Gedankenexperiment: imagine an American President speaking like this. What is his name?