| Saturday, December 10, 2005 |
| WHAT DO YOU THINK |
The new weekends on thumping the tub will be the 'What do you think?' section. Just things I can never make my mind up about.
So here goes. Do politicians deliberately set out to be deceptive and malicious? Do they sit and think 'Ok, what is the worst thing I could do today?'. Or is it that they sit and think 'ok, how best can I make money for me and my friends today?'.
It may be that the lackeys, sycophants and lobbyists that surround them prevent the truth from getting to them and that as they bomb people and keep the world in poverty through unfair trading systems they genuinely believe they are doing some good?
In short are they malicious and malevolent, just plain greedy or is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions? |
posted by michael the tubthumper @ 12:30 pm  |
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| 7 Comments: |
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Man, I really like the new look.
And to answer your question, no, they don't lie just to lie. Often they go through a process to convince themselves that their decisions are the best.
Also, largely, these guys socialize with the Washington set or with their rich contributors back home, so their frame of reference is far from normal.
And then you have the lobbyists whose sole job it is to give them the data to justify their self serving decisions.
I would think that if you asked most politicians candidly, their self belief would be that they are honest and actually acting in the best interests of their constituents.
And that is the true horror.
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The road to hell for most of us is paved with the good intentions that the powerful have towards the right people.
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I wish I come up with a unique and definitive answer to this one, Michael, but mikevotes and philip said it all and said it well. I concur heartily with them.
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I don't think it's one way or the other, and in general I agree with the comments above. However, I do believe that the politicians we're thinking of here are necessarily hardcore racists.
Also, I think there are degrees to how decent or not these people can be. Look at what Jimmy Carter (no angel during his presidency) has done since leaving office and compare to what, um, George Bush Sr. has involved himself in.
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First thought is greed, that is what watching Cheney and Bush have done to me. Some politicians mean well, but I'm too jaded right now.
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it obviously changes from person to person. i think some of them manage to convince themselves that they are doing a good thing but when i look at dick cheney the words "good intentions" do not spring readily to mind
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politicians never lie
they are perfect luminous beings
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Name: michael the tubthumper
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Man, I really like the new look.
And to answer your question, no, they don't lie just to lie. Often they go through a process to convince themselves that their decisions are the best.
Also, largely, these guys socialize with the Washington set or with their rich contributors back home, so their frame of reference is far from normal.
And then you have the lobbyists whose sole job it is to give them the data to justify their self serving decisions.
I would think that if you asked most politicians candidly, their self belief would be that they are honest and actually acting in the best interests of their constituents.
And that is the true horror.