Whatever the ruling power may be it is repugnant to any
change; never does it voluntarily restrict itself in its faculty of bestowing
or withholding offices, authority, consideration, influence, or salaries, every
desirable and every desired good thing; as far as it can, it retains these in
its own hands to distribute them as it pleases, and in its own interest to
bestow them on its partisans and to deprive its adversaries of them, to attract
clients and create minions.
Hippolyte Taine - The Modern Regime (1893)
An interesting quote because it implies that supranational bodies such as the EU and UN will attempt to reduce national governments to the status of minions. Often willing minions - as all good minions are.
3 comments:
AKH Pleas help me here as I'm not very good with cartoon characters but is that Mr Tspiras in the centre with a Mrs Merkel on the left and a Mr Juncker on the right, or have I got it all mixed up and its Mrs Merkel in the centre?
The advantage of being a minion is that you always have someone else to blame.
Graham - I think that's right but it is hard to tell with minions. They talk gibberish too, so no clues to be had there.
Demetrius - blaming is an art which some seem to master from an early age.
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