In order to give "idiotarianism" (or Villepinism, or whatever) the right name it would help if we understood where this pathological conception of morality comes from. I just spent another exhuasting after-dinner conversation trying to persuade an anti-war friend that Bush was right to take us to war in Iraq when he did, and something struck me afterward.

Instead of trying to persuade her to switch sides by criticising her position, I should have been encouraging her to criticise *my* position. I suppose this would be like leading a horse to water, but anyway:

Some think tank should set up a call centre next time there's a just war on the cards. Each idiotarian caller is paid 25 cence on their credit card for every good question or criticism they make to the well-trained telephone moralist. (The telemoralist has access to detailed computer files citing arguments, counterarguments, newspaper sources, etc). These 25 cence payments keep stacking up until the caller repeats a circular argument, or falls back on "peace is better than war", or "Bush is slimy and he pollutes rivers", "we need more information before rushing to judgement" or "the Catholics were just as bad in Northern Ireland" or whatever.

In this way,
(a) we get to know far more about idiotarians
(b) idiotarians are forced to confront reality

Actually, maybe it would be more effective to make the payments to charity (the charity would be selected by agreement from a list).

The caller must answer 4 or 5 questions before the critical session begins in order to establish his credentials as a Villepinist. (As an extra guide, lie detecting software would be installed on the call centre's computers)

I know this scheme has about as much chance of being implemented as every Palestinian kid getting a free trip to Disneyland, but what the heck. Someone slap me down...