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How, he asks, can the majority be trusted when narrow self-interest is allowed to run roughshod over the commonweal?

A speech designed to discuss the commonweal will be delivered to a nation that is having increasing difficulty finding much of anything in common.

Politicians and assorted intellectuals lazily depict public expressions of faith as providing exponential benefits for the commonweal.

The problem, of course, is a widespread disinclination to serve that good, whether it is fueled by selfishness and ignorance or the sense that one’s contributions to the commonweal have not felt adequately reciprocal.

The usual response to people who abuse an honor system — or indeed, who fail to contribute to the commonweal by masking and social distancing — is to expose them to shame, typically by revealing their misconduct.