NICENESS

  
There are moments when we want niceness to triumph, and the Christmas season is one of them. That's why everyone gets a gift and everyone gets a card, even people we don't particular like or who don't particularly deserve our affection. Holidays, like birthdays, represent the temporary and necessary institutionalization of niceness. But the key word is "temporary": the rest of the year we are free to pursue worthier goals. These events are also personal rituals, and in our personal relationships it is appropriate to leaven what is right with what is nice. Governance is a different matter. In the past two years, the White House has been awfully nice to certain people, particularly those in the top two tax brackets. This Administration's idea of economic policy is to go from table to table at the Four Seasons discreetly asking patrons if they need help with the check.

-- Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker