When I was a kid, people who hoped one day to be in politics were careful never to smoke pot. The current generation of kids will be careful never to leave any lasting record of any of their opinions.

The more naive kids may think it's safe to express opinions so long as they're energetically orthodox. But those with any sense of history know that many things that are safe to say today won't be safe to have said 20 years from now.

Or maybe all this caution will be wasted, as all our generation's caution about smoking pot was, because in 20 years people's careers will be ended for something else entirely. But for what? I can't imagine, but let's hope it's not for something even worse.