The folks at the Salisbury Review considered calling Dalrymple’s new blog there The Hilarious Pessimist before settling on Small Tumours on the Body Politic. Both names are appropriate for this piece. Here, he comments on a French mother who physically attacked her son’s teacher:
The mother of the pupil… no doubt considered that it was an outrage that any offspring of so important and irreproachable person as herself should be criticised as having been imperfect in some way. This was an attack on her inalienable right to self-esteem that, other than that to freedom from consequences, is the most basic of all human rights.