Friday 1 November 2024
The Horribly Obvious Link
No observer, however keen, could have guessed his thoughts; he had acquired sufficient knowledge of the art of life to hide his opinions even when he was alone; nay, more than that, he was afraid of coming to a clear understanding with himself.
August Strindberg - The Red Room (1879)
The Horribly Obvious Link sounds like an Enid Blyton story doesn’t it? Oh well –
There is a horribly obvious link between ideological virtue and the cowardly evasion of consequences. We see it now in political leaders, hiding behind political virtue, promoting political causes, hiding from real world effects, afraid of coming to a clear understanding.
The link is there, the cowardice inevitable, it isn’t an Enid Blyton story.
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1 comment:
My suspicion is that there are very few conviction politicians in today's world. Most politicians are playing a board game - political Snakes and Ladders. All trying to short circuit modest progress by climbing ladders and send others down snakes. And as with other board games there appear to be no real world consequences.
You can argue who was and wasn't a conviction politician - and not all conviction politicians were worthy of esteem.
But the message (old fashioned though it is) is - if you don't want to be blamed don't do blameworthy things.
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