Worst Instincts ─ Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU

When an organization committed to free speech succumbs to pressure to suppress internal criticism and disregard or "spin" the truth, it offers important lessons for other associations, corporations, and governments. Wendy Kaminer, a renowned advocate of civil liberties, calls on her experience as a dissident member of the American Civil Liberties Union national board to tell an inside story of dramatic ethical decline that has much to teach us about the land mines of groupthink.

"Kaminer...Weighs in on her disillusionment with the ACLU after serving on the national board in post-9/11 America...Her depiction of how group members not only follow the herd but also ostracize the 'troublemaker' is compelling, and her book is brave and informative."---Publishers Weekly

"The willingness to criticize your own based on principles you would apply to others is a measure of integrity. Kaminer's important book about her beloved ACLU has that integrity. She tells a startling, sad, and exceptionally well-documented story."---Ira Glasser, former executive director, ACLU

"Standing up to your political enemies is easy, fun, and often profitable. Taking public issue with your friends and allies on a matter of great principle is none of these, but it is a far more important service to others. I am enormously grateful to Wendy Kaminer for the intellectual integrity and moral courage this book represents."---Congressman Barney Frank

"Witty, trenchant, devastating, Worst Instincts is a study of institutional decay, of how good organizations, blinded by the righteousness of their mission, do bad things."---Jack Beatty, author of Age of Betrayal and On Point news analyst

Materials cited in this book, including records of ACLU meetings, memos, and correspondence from board and staff members, are available in the Beacon Press archive at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Wendy Kaminer is the author of many books, including Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today; I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions; and Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety. She lives in Boston.