In 1865, during his first and only campaign for a seat in Parliament, John Stuart Mill addressed a meeting of workers, who then were not permitted to vote. When questioned about whether he had written harshly about their morality—specifically, their propensity to lie—he acknowledged that he had done so.  The audience cheered, we are told, and one of them rose—in Alan Ryan’s words—to proclaim that “the workers needed friends, not flatterers.”

It is in the spirit of friendship, not flattery, that I express some concern about an Occupy action last week at Foley Square, the site of several Occupy gatherings. Reportedly, a hundred demonstrators gathered there to protest the shooting of an episode “Law & Order:  Special Victims Unit,” which surreally had constructed a replica of the Liberty Square encampment, under license from the city. Then some 30 protesters crossed…

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