Monday, March 16, 2015

Power corrupts

Boy, does it ever. Kevin D. Williamson looks at the monstrous Hillary Clinton. Here’s a quote that all politicians should remember, if only for the care of their own souls:
Those addicted to political power do not usually wind up living in the streets, but they suffer a parallel dehumanizing abasement: There is nothing left in them, in their minds or their souls, that transcends the pursuit of political power itself. As with de Sade’s protagonists or the defeated drug addict, the relentless process of subtraction from the human sum has left only a single exotic appetite.
I work for the government and I see the same phenomenon playing out in microcosm every day. It is bad enough when we contemplate power-addiction among actors on the national stage; when we see bit players far removed from the immediate neighborhood of the Eye of Sauron in thrall to the same drug, prosecuting their little turf wars and furiously jockeying for position on their insignificant sand hills, the spectacle becomes maddeningly ludicrous – but not necessarily less dangerous to the body politic. The president may eliminate another layer of freedom with the stroke of a pen, but the efforts of thousands of bureaucratic Lilliputians , driven by the same lust for power and tirelessly weaving an infinitude of bonds for the restraint of a free people, can have the same enervating results.

Meanwhile, let us join Paul Mirengoff for a walk down memory lane, as he reminds us of Hillary’s earlier problems with missing files.

6 comments:

mojo said...

How many "re-orgs" in the last ten years, Paco?

Time to move the deck chairs again...

Paco said...

At least three major re-orgs, each one more pointless than the last.

rinardman said...

...the relentless process of subtraction from the human sum has left only a single exotic appetite.

I don't have the brainpower to figure this out.

Could someone translate, please?

JeffS said...

"Bureaucratic Lilliputians" is spot on, Paco. It's insane as to the amount of empire building that's always going on. Especially when you consider how counterproductive it is.

RebeccaH said...

You ain't seen nothin' until you've watched two faculty members argue over who's important enough to get the office with the extra window.

Paco said...

R-man: You need to read the whole article to get the context (dude, stop taking shortcuts).

Anyway, it means that all of the components that make up the typical human personality - the capacity for love, intellectual curiosity, the desire to create and achieve - are peeled away in the case of the addict, so that all that is left is the single-minded gratification of his addiction.