There are some senior politicians who seem to saunter through the corridors of power like Valentine in the Wilkie Collins quote below - without quite knowing their own motives.
They are confident within a secure carapace of easy mendacity, comfortable and unlikely to suffer unduly from disasters they casually initiate or just as casually promote because that’s the easier path to take.
It was a common predicament with him not to know his own motives, generally from not inquiring into them. There are men who run breathlessly—men who walk cautiously—and men who saunter easily through the journey of life. Valentine belonged to the latter class; and, like the rest of his order, often strayed down a new turning, without being able to realize at the time what purpose it was which first took him that way. Our destinies shape the future for us out of strange materials.
Wilkie Collins - Hide and Seek (1854)
They are confident within a secure carapace of easy mendacity, comfortable and unlikely to suffer unduly from disasters they casually initiate or just as casually promote because that’s the easier path to take.
It was a common predicament with him not to know his own motives, generally from not inquiring into them. There are men who run breathlessly—men who walk cautiously—and men who saunter easily through the journey of life. Valentine belonged to the latter class; and, like the rest of his order, often strayed down a new turning, without being able to realize at the time what purpose it was which first took him that way. Our destinies shape the future for us out of strange materials.
Wilkie Collins - Hide and Seek (1854)
2 comments:
If you are climbing the greasy pole you can crap on all those below you with impunity. Looking above you all you can see is arsoles. A display of casual competence is required to maintrain your position... whether it is justyified or not.
DJ - yes, understanding such people is a problem for those with no wish to crap on anyone. Just observe the behaviour seems to be the best bet.
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