aren't we all "surrounded by idiots"?

The last thing we will consider is altering our own behavior—because, surely, someone else is at fault. The Oil Companies, the Saudis, Dick Cheney—anyone but me. As has been described by Jason Peters, editor of a fine volume on [Wendell] Berry, it's like heavy traffic. Heavy traffic is always other people. When you say "traffic was terrible," you're never talking about yourself.

- Patrick Deneen, "Technology, Culture & Virtue" in The New Atlantis