“We all know that politics is a con some of the time. It has begun to feel like politics is a con almost all of the time.”
Well, some of us have never thought much of politics in the first place, certainly not politics as a professional job.
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Where on earth has this woman been living for the last twenty years?
According to her bio, Ms. Cavendish as been “a McKinsey management consultant, an aid worker, and CEO of a not-for-profit company.” Well, that certainly qualifies her to give real-world advice!
Yes, just another Westminster
Village Idiot.
“Westminster Village Idiot”. I like that 🙂
Thanks for that Ian B.
But when I posted that, I had a Paul McCartney and Yesterday moment.
Surely that’s so obvious, someones used it before?
What the hell, I said to myself
bung it in. It’s for free and fun after all.
Then the very same phrase turns up in Littlejohns Mail column this morning!
Hmmm.
I have suspected said journo of nicking stuff off this site before. Not just from me, hell there are loads of people who post here, who are able to turn a witty phrase, yourself especially included.
But if the bugger did nick it, can I host his column for him while he is on his hols, as compensation?
Unless he fears I may prove even more popular than himself.
Hidden in this comment, regardless of the qualifications or lack thereof of Ms Cavendish, is a very clear acknowledgement of the entire point of state minimalism—the less the state is allowed to do, the more honestly and efficiently society in general can function.
Do political types engage in chicanery? Of course, even the most hardened and committed statists are forced to admit that this is so. Their answer, in one form or another, is always more watchdogs watching the watchdogs watch the pols.
The classical liberal answer is to so restrict the range of political action that little is left for the pols to feast upon, and reserve the great part of individual and social action and inter-action to private citizens and volutarily formed groups, whether commercial or otherwise.
It is not surprizing that this fundamental idea brings howls of anger and derision from the statist, as it undercuts the very foundation of the demand for collective, coercive state action in an ever increasing range of human activities.
Politics is not necessarily an evil thing, nor are its practitioners automatically and inherently corrupt. But any system in which power becomes an end in itself, and the range of human life that that power can be applied to grows and grows exponentionally, invites, demands, and even requires the abandonment of principled moral action when all limits on political power break down.
I don’t believe we have reached that final stage quite yet. But the road back towards a more minimalist state will be long and arduous, as any search for true value always is.
That is why it is best not to leave politics to the pols alone.
Over the past 30 years of my career in science and engineering, I’ve seen technical and practical advances of mind boggling proportions. Unfortunately, I’m afraid similar advancements have occurred in the art and science of manipulating voters we call politics. Were it not for the internet as a countervailing force, just think how thoroughly full of crap we’d be, force fed by the powers that be.
Where is the vision of the new politicians? They can’t clearly visualize the problems or the reason government answers fail. “Freedom of Speech” is being turned over to “The Fairness Doctrine”. There are countless examples where government by and for the people is actually nothing more than an earmark towards purchasing a block of votes. Government should be viewed as nothing more than another entity in our world required to file the same paperwork we do. “1099 for All”. We can track them just like they track us.
McKinsey explains it all… They are smarter than the rest of us… Except for those at Bain who say Accentuate THIS…
For the liberal arts people this is the Jesuits vs Fransciscans vs Dominicans of the business and political world… They want to control everything but not necessarily have their names on everything…
Politics as a con game by a consultant who cons the people who do into letting her play with the knobs, levers and buttons…
Watch it with the Village Idiot stuff. Ours in an honored profession, stretching back well before the Conquest.
People tend not to notice the con when it’s their tribe that’s winning.