Political criminality might be organized into a hierarchy ranging from not all that bad to really bad. Acts of civil disobedience would rank near the bottom, or even escape censure entirely as “crimes” against injustice. Treason would probably come first. Terrorism could be a close second. Frequency correlates inversely with gravity: plenty of arrests for defying unjust laws, very few for plotting to blow things up. At least that used to be the case.

Nowadays, the old order is in disarray. Roughly half the population would qualify for indictment as terrorists by the powers that be. Most of them have not even stooped to commit a lowly act of civil disobedience — all they had to do was show up at a “No Kings” demonstration, or denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for behaving like Nazis, or picket an immigrant detention center, or, even more innocuously, claim a right to free speech. Even ranks of the most respectable — say, elected officials — are not immune to being branded terrorists.

Times have changed. In April 1969, I was arrested, along with a few friends, for conspiring to blow up the Liberty Bell, which happened to be pretty close to where I was living in Philadelphia.