So long as a man takes an interest only in himself, in his own fortune, in his own advancement, in his own success, his interests are trivial: all that is, like himself, of little importance and of short duration. Alongside of the small boat which he steers so carefully there are thousands and millions of others of like it; none of them are worth much, and his own is not worth more. However well he may have provisioned and sailed it, it will always remain what it is, slight and fragile; in vain will he hoist his flags, decorate it, and shove ahead to get the first place; in three steps he has reached its length. However well he handles and maintains it, in a few years it leaks; sooner or later it crumbles and sinks, and with it goes all his effort. Is it reasonable to work so hard for this, and is so slight an object worth so great an effort?
Hippolyte Taine - The Modern Regime (1893)
It’s something which keeps occurring to me – why do they do it? Sunak achieved less than nothing, why does Starmer think he'll achieve more than that? He could achieve less.
Keir Starmer is at best an extremely evasive, bureaucrat, his party a rabble of disaffected malice and dull, middle lass limitations. Whatever happens after the general election he’ll achieve nothing of lasting value because he isn’t the man to do it. A few years as PM will do no more than spell it out to him. If he's lucky he'll miss that by being ousted early.
Whatever he thinks, whatever his voters think he’ll do for them, in a few years it leaks; sooner or later it crumbles and sinks, and with it goes all his effort.
Whatever he thinks, whatever his voters think he’ll do for them, in a few years it leaks; sooner or later it crumbles and sinks, and with it goes all his effort.
That they think they can make a go of it seems to be the clue. They are genuinely deluded as to the significance of their efforts.
3 comments:
Wasn't it Enoch Powell who said that all political careers eventually end in failure? Looking back over modern history, there is plenty to convince one of this general truth.
Yet do you remember Sunak having his leadership campaign website registered and ready to go while Boris was still in office?
Either the pleasure and excitement of having the top job is so great that it eclipses all the stress, failure, and ignominy that inevitable results; or some people are just "different". It was the same at work. I saw lots of people neglecting their families, soaking up oceans of punishment, working eighty hour weeks, and living life from a position of suspicion and hatred - all for the pleasure of running a little F.E. college with a turnover of a few million quid per year. And a salary (in 2010) of less than £100k. Unbelievable, but that's how it is.
Why should anyone make an effort? This obituary of Daniel Kahneman offers reasons why. https://thecritic.co.uk/the-best-we-can-hope-for/
Sam - "Either the pleasure and excitement of having the top job is so great that it eclipses all the stress, failure, and ignominy that inevitable results"
That must be it, for some people, all that effort gives back an illusion which is strong enough to be a satisfactory reward. If we look at it like that, then they are not so different from everyone else, but their illusions require many more props.
decnine - yes he was a remarkable man. I have one of his books and when I read that essay I thought about doing a blog post on it but never got round to it.
I have a notion that people like Daniel Kahneman who get close to what we are as humans are not likely to be studied by many people once they are no more. A limited number will always read what they wrote, but for the establishment and the chattering classes they come too close to human reality for comfort.
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