Moving Toward A Cess Pool of Public Servants
With the recent trashing of Supreme Court nominee Harriett Meiers and now the impending trashing of Samuel Alito, and the perpetual trashing of the President and anyone else in public office, we are setting ourselves up for what I believe will be the gradual ruin of our entire representative system.
Let me explain. People who run for public office realize that they are in the spotlight and as such they are fair game for question and criticism. I certainly have no problem with that. If you can’t take the heat, as the old saw goes, then get out of the kitchen. But our civilization has lost its civility.
We seem unable to exercise critical judgment interacting with ideas and concepts, policies and procedures and instead, major on ripping the heart and soul out of anyone with whom we disagree. The collective goal anymore is not to show weaknesses or inaccuracies with assessments and plans but to so berate, harass and excoriate a person—or their families--at the core of their existence such that they are bludgeoned out of the arena of public discourse and public consideration.
And here is the problem. People who are truly decent people, even virtuous people are that way because they understand, at some level, the true priorities of life in the grand scheme of things. As such they are willing to go only so far in the conscienceless arena of public service and then, properly understanding that some things just truly aren’t worth it, they will abstain from putting themselves in those positions.
The only caliber of person this leaves in what will become a cess pool of people willing to run for office, is the meanest, nastiest, most soulless people our culture has as they see nothing greater in this life than the unmitigated quest for power. If that means putting their families through hell to get it and keep it, or if it means lying and cheating and conniving, and even selling one’s soul, so be it! Whatever it takes, that is what you do.
Which means increasingly, the choices for our leaders at all levels will not be the very best but the very worst the culture has to offer. We are so close to that point I want to go hole up in a cave somewhere. We are in for nasty times.
Let me explain. People who run for public office realize that they are in the spotlight and as such they are fair game for question and criticism. I certainly have no problem with that. If you can’t take the heat, as the old saw goes, then get out of the kitchen. But our civilization has lost its civility.
We seem unable to exercise critical judgment interacting with ideas and concepts, policies and procedures and instead, major on ripping the heart and soul out of anyone with whom we disagree. The collective goal anymore is not to show weaknesses or inaccuracies with assessments and plans but to so berate, harass and excoriate a person—or their families--at the core of their existence such that they are bludgeoned out of the arena of public discourse and public consideration.
And here is the problem. People who are truly decent people, even virtuous people are that way because they understand, at some level, the true priorities of life in the grand scheme of things. As such they are willing to go only so far in the conscienceless arena of public service and then, properly understanding that some things just truly aren’t worth it, they will abstain from putting themselves in those positions.
The only caliber of person this leaves in what will become a cess pool of people willing to run for office, is the meanest, nastiest, most soulless people our culture has as they see nothing greater in this life than the unmitigated quest for power. If that means putting their families through hell to get it and keep it, or if it means lying and cheating and conniving, and even selling one’s soul, so be it! Whatever it takes, that is what you do.
Which means increasingly, the choices for our leaders at all levels will not be the very best but the very worst the culture has to offer. We are so close to that point I want to go hole up in a cave somewhere. We are in for nasty times.
posted by PB at 2:50 PM
5 Comments:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of
government. It can only exist until the voters discover
that they can vote themselves largess from the public
treasury. From that time on the majority always votes
for the candidates promising the most benefits from the
public treasury, with the results that a democracy
always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed
by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's great civilizations
has been 200 years. These nations have
progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith
from spiritual faith to great courage
from courage to liberty
from liberty to abundance
from abundance to selfishness
from selfishness to complacency
from complacency to apathy
from apathy to dependency
from dependency back to bondage.
-- Alexander Fraser Tytler (1742-1813)
Scarey! But well said.
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Rash guards? Are you some kind of freak?
Keep your stupid comments to yourself. This site is about good old fashion anger towards people other than oursleves. If you don't have xenophobic paranoia - stay away.
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Pastor - I think you should write an article about these rapid vets who are so upset with the peace freaks in Waterville. From my point of view, while I am hawkish, I don't see an issue with these folks making an issue of the folks who have been killed in this insane war that G Bush has tricked us into. Where do these crazies like "Erica" who was in the paper the other day get off? You would think they would care about the vets BEING KILLED in the Idiot In Cheif's war.
Anyway, just a thought. It would make for interesting reading.
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