It is sometimes said that outcome indicates intention.
Which is disconcerting when here in the UK we have a particularly mendacious political leadership. What did Labour voters think they were voting for if not a hefty dose of mendacity?
Among the fluffy impossibilities and actualised spite they hoped for, perhaps they did vote for mendacity, because that’s what we have and millions would still vote for it again - today.
It’s a reminder of an uncomfortable Hippolyte Taine quote –
It’s a reminder of an uncomfortable Hippolyte Taine quote –
When power is born on the spot and conferred to-day by constituents who are to submit to it to-morrow as subordinates, they do not put the whip in the hands of one who will flog them; they demand sentiments of him in conformity with their inclinations; in any event they will not tolerate in him the opposite ones. From the beginning, this resemblance between them and him is great, and it goes on increasing from day to day because the creature is always in the hands of his creators; subject to their daily pressure, he at last becomes as they are; after a certain period they have shaped him in their image.—Thus the candidate-elect, from the start or very soon after, became a confederate with his electors.
Hippolyte Taine - The Modern Regime (1893)
Hippolyte Taine - The Modern Regime (1893)
2 comments:
It's disconcerting and depressing to say the least, but I think there is a possibility that we as a country have become more comfortable with political mendacity because we have ourselves become more mendacious. So many people have got jobs which are all about selling stuff, presenting policies, defending organisations, and pretending to be something which we are not.
I think it was the American sociologist C. Wright Mills who said that whereas blue-collar workers sell their labour, white-collar workers sell their souls.
Sam - yes, the widespread selling and presenting aspect of modern life is disconcerting, especially when we see people selling themselves in all kinds of contexts.
Earlier this morning we were chatting about related aspects of this over coffee with our son. In a sense, white-collar workers sell their souls to themselves, not realising it really isn't theirs.
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