Is there any relief from some of thesepressures that I've been outlining? I think there is. I just want to turn to afew of them. Let's take meritocracy. This idea that everybody deserves to getwhere they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy. I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense. But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream.

"The writer's duty is to tell the truth, even when it is uncomfortable."

The most credible empirical research often comes from studies that have a clear and transparent design, where the assumptions are laid out for everyone to see.

If at first the idea is not absurd, then there will be no hope for it.