I'm a bit under the weather tonight. The main symptom I have is that while I know it's cold out and some of that cold has got in here, I feel even colder than I should, all things considered. Experience has taught me that when I try to post after taking something for a cold, the results can get pretty incoherent. So I'm doing so before I take anything.
Actually that's about it. Except for an open question. Why is it that power―military, economic, what have you―so often winds up in the hands of people who can't be trusted with it? It seems to be a constant for most of my lifetime, if not longer.
2 comments:
I hope you're feeling better now and I also hope you have
someone to call if help is necessary.
As for your open question, I'll take the opportunity to quote Yeats: “The best lack all conviction/ while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
It's a question that has haunted our world for a very long time.
When he was interviewed earlier in the current year: Putin lamented the fact that the political systems in many countries “often bring people to prominence who have a rather low level of education and general cultural awareness; at times they do not understand what they say and do.” “The result, as is well known, is clear for all to see. Their activities are detrimental to their own people and to their own businesses,” the president stressed.
Then there was Ambrose Bierce who said: "In our civilization, and under our form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office."
The chills and fever didn't last too long. I had some kind of bug. It's gone now, although the sore throat and cough are more persistent. As for someone to call, I'm sure I could get help from friends and at least one neighbor. Thus far it's never been necessary.
Give them their due. The worst are filled not only with passionate intensity but with the focus to attain their goals. Unfortunately their goals are bad.
Putin has seen many come and go in his own country as well as adversarial nations. I'm sure he has some interesting insights.
Bierce, one of my favorite wits. He also wrote a definition of "politician" for The Devil's Dictionary: An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When we wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive..
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