Recently I was reminded of this scene from Episode 1 of Season 1 in Angel:

I think this is the constant temptation of people who think they are “defending” the establishment.  They eventually get to the point where they believe that the society they claim to protect owes them some sustenance.  They’ve done so much good for us.  Surely it is reasonable to demand our blood.

What sparked my memory of this scene was this quotation:

If you are of the establishment persuasion (and I am)… By definition, establishments believe in propping up the existing order. Members of the ruling class have a vested interest in keeping things pretty much the way they are. Safeguarding the status quo, protecting traditional institutions, can be healthy and useful, stabilizing and reassuring.

And if the establishment has through hubris rigged it’s own decline from power, then it can double up on hubris and claim that strip mining society of what it has left in order to stay in power is justified by the “importance” of the establishment to the protection of society.

Do you doubt this is what David told himself while he was taking Bathsheba?

Why would Paulson or Geithner think any differently?