Normal Dirty Politics

A good man can’t be a politician. Politics is a dirty business, and whoever touches it will get his fingers soiled. It’s rather inevitable because there’s too much at stake.

It’s almost unfair to expect anything but lies and deception from those who are fighting for power. If that’s the only way to get into a position where they can have what they consider a good influence on society, it’s practically their duty to be crooks.

What is more important one may ask, to make the country a better place for all its citizens, or to go keep one’s own personal purity? Isn’t it supposed to be honorable to sacrifice yourself for your country?

If that was so, we would reach the contradictory conclusion that for a politician a bad person is a good person. Since basic logic makes that impossible, we must assume that there can’t be any good people among politicians.

The real fault is in the system that makes dishonesty a necessity. To get elected the candidates are required to slander their opponents and make shady deals to secure support. If they don’t do it, they will never get into a position where they can do all those wonderful things that they promise to do for society.

In the historical past power was gained at the point of a gun or the edge of a sword. At least there’s a certain honesty to brute force; whoever won the battle won the kingdom, and it wasn’t really possible to cheat.

Of course I’m not advocating a return to that way of choosing a government, our bloodless methods are much preferable, but politics is still not a gentleman’s sport, and it really shouldn’t be. Candidates are not fighting for honor like athletes in the field. They are (supposedly) fighting for what is best for the country, and if they are really convinced that they have the ultimate solution, it’s reasonable to expect them to use all dirty tools available. They are not doing it for their own sake, are they?

Well, I for one think they are, but who am I to say. Their followers believe in them and condone everything.

The ends don’t justify the means, but once someone has entered the battle, the means are already accepted.