The trolley problem is a thought experiment designed to force a choice between two ethical frameworks. We are now living inside versions of the trolley problem so large, so complex, and so morally consequential that the original thought experiment looks almost quaint by comparison. The trolleys are real. The people on the tracks are real. And we - individually, collectively, politically - are standing next to the lever. The question is no longer theoretical. How do we choose?

If Aristotle, who thought more carefully about political leadership than almost anyone in the history of Western philosophy, were somehow dropped into our current political landscape, what would he make of it? My honest answer: I think he'd be appalled. But not for the reasons you might expect. He wouldn't be appalled by the technology, the scale, or the complexity. He'd be appalled by something much more fundamental. He'd be appalled by what we've stopped asking. Let me expl