Comments for Unhealthy state at http://www.adamsmith.org , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.adamsmith.org Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:00:56 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/politics/unhealthy-state-200805171402/#comment-243 "The simple truth is that the public recognise that those in power over us are, virtually to a man (and woman), a group of self-serving, mendacious individuals." Some of the public, maybe even a majority, may recognise this, but a lot of statists don't seem to. Indeed some are so locked into two-party statist thinking that they assume that if you criticise a politician of one stripe, that must be because you are in the other lot's camp! - QuestionThat Mon, 19 May 2008 16:06:57 +0100 http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/politics/unhealthy-state-200805171402/#comment-239 I think it could be a bit of both. Media reports bad news - public doesn't like bad news - starts to hate - Media pick up on hate - report more - even more - excessively more - whole country hates. Thats my thought anyway. samknight4labour.blogspot.com - Sam Knight Sat, 17 May 2008 21:35:53 +0100 http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/politics/unhealthy-state-200805171402/#comment-236 "Criticism for Brown is near unanimous across the press only because it is so across the public at large." Do you think it could possibly be the other way round? - David Williams Sat, 17 May 2008 10:22:47 +0100 http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/politics/unhealthy-state-200805171402/#comment-234 "Focusing on the recent turn against Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the piece suggests that the current abuse is now more vitriolic than in the past and is indicative of the bad character of the people making such judgements." A classic case of argument by inversion. The simple truth is that the public recognise that those in power over us are, virtually to a man (and woman), a group of self-serving, mendacious individuals. What many find difficult to understand is how this situation came to pass. Looking around society as a whole, we see that yes, there are deeply unpleasant individuals amongst us, but their numbers are relatively small. How could so many in politics seem to be drawn from this small group? The answer is that politics is a self-selecting occupation, and one that gives those involved carte blanche to indulge their own pathologies. This theme was explored in a recent article (http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/beware-the-psychopath-my-son/) by Clinton Callahan, where the author seeks to answer his own question of: "Why, no matter how much intelligent goodwill exists in the world, is there so much war, suffering and injustice? It doesn’t seem to matter what creative plan, ideology, religion, or philosophy great minds come up with, nothing seems to improve our lot. Since the dawn of civilization, this pattern repeats itself over and over again." And this pattern will repeat itself over and over again whilst our politicians have the ability to exercise power over our lives. Only when "politics" as we currently know it is removed from our daily lives will we be able to live within a truly free market economy, and only then will this cycle of destruction be broken - Patrick Vessey Sat, 17 May 2008 08:24:27 +0100