These are voices which you ought to shun just as Ulysses did; he would not sail past them until he was lashed to the mast. They are no less potent; they lure men from country, parents, friends, and virtuous ways; and by a hope that, if not base, is ill-starred, they wreck them upon a life of baseness. How much better to follow a straight course and attain a goal where the words "pleasant" and "honourable" have the same meaning!
Seneca - Epistulae morales ad Lucilium c. 65 AD
As we know too well, modern politicians may be described in all kinds of ways which match their dishonourable behaviour. As a general perspective, the things they say and do are probably best seen as the outcome of what politics has become over recent decades, a dishonourable career for dishonourable people. A career for amoral careerists.
UK political parties are politically similar because they generally attract the same kind of people for the same reason and that reason isn't altruistic political conviction. Politics at a national and international level offers a career suited to amoral careerists, not altruists. It is much the same at senior levels of major bureaucracies, quangos, NGOs and so on.
National politicians do not necessarily expect to become rich via a career in politics because they are not unusually talented. They do expect to become wealthy enough to be secure while making useful contacts for a a lucrative career if they lose their seat. They may lack the talent to succeed on their own merits outside a taxpayer supported environment, but once acquired, their inside experience of power has significant value.
National politics is a career which attracts people suited to it, generally those who expect to do well out of it. Not all of them are amoral careerists, but the system selects those most suited to its functions, not honourable people.
National politicians do not necessarily expect to become rich via a career in politics because they are not unusually talented. They do expect to become wealthy enough to be secure while making useful contacts for a a lucrative career if they lose their seat. They may lack the talent to succeed on their own merits outside a taxpayer supported environment, but once acquired, their inside experience of power has significant value.
National politics is a career which attracts people suited to it, generally those who expect to do well out of it. Not all of them are amoral careerists, but the system selects those most suited to its functions, not honourable people.
2 comments:
You've said it all. Nothing to add here either.
Tammly - thanks, it's those politicians, the gift that keeps on giving as folks say.
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