Are politicians inherently bad?

Have philosophical discussions about politics, law, and government.
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cynicallyinsane
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Joined: March 3rd, 2007, 11:58 am

Are politicians inherently bad?

Post by cynicallyinsane »

To gain political power, a person must lie, cheat, and manipulate people. Are politicians inherently bad?
MyshiningOne
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Re: Are politicians inherently bad?

Post by MyshiningOne »

cynicallyinsane wrote:To gain political power, a person must lie, cheat, and manipulate people. Are politicians inherently bad?
No, but I don't really think they are inherently good
either. I'm not referring to all politicians, but
most of them resort to low tactics to win power.
They make promises they don't fulfill, they depend
on false religious values to win the heart of the people. As you mentioned they often manipulate
other people through the use of negative campaigning
and the like. The fight for political power can often turn ugly, and this can turn great friends into
bitter enemies. Even morals can fall by the
wayside in this fight, since they must lie and cheat to get what they want. The world of politics
looks honorable, but deep down, it is far from
honorable. Some can overcome these barriers, but
it is rare.
It's not what you know that makes
you smart, it's knowing what you don't know.
cynicallyinsane
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Post by cynicallyinsane »

I see what you are saying. But, if it takes such dirty tricks for politicans to win, then how can anyone good win?
NSUSA
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Post by NSUSA »

I think it depends on how we define the word politician. However, it seems that most people who we call politicians are self-serving liars.
Patrarch
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Post by Patrarch »

I don't think they are inherently bad, I think because of outside forces and the way the system is built they become that way.
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.
Hoops4me2
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Joined: December 18th, 2007, 3:06 pm

Post by Hoops4me2 »

Career Politicians are inherintly bad. They are to often swayed by special and self interests. Politions that serve for several years are in my opinion much better!
OGriobhtha
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Post by OGriobhtha »

i don't know, i think that there are many good people with idealism that go into politics but get swallowed up by a corrupt, inhuman system. They either turn to corruption themselves because it is the way things are done; or they get totally pissed off.
I don't see how anyone at the moment could reform politics here in Ireland, we have an ignorant, self centered crowd that care only about their own pockets. The Irish people are enjoying having wealth for the 1st time - which is great, but sooner or later we need to start looking at developing our society.
james1951
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Joined: January 8th, 2008, 3:44 pm

Re: Are politicians inherently bad?

Post by james1951 »

cynicallyinsane wrote:To gain political power, a person must lie, cheat, and manipulate people. Are politicians inherently bad?
Is that really true? Will people refuse to elect an honest person?

THe problem with politics is that the job is to look after your own needs, not consider the needs of others. I think most politicians forget this the higher up the ladder they go.

Ron Paul suggests if we were more in tune with the wants of our enemies, our enemies would have less of a desire to attack us. Bush believes we must crush our enemies.

I agree with Ron Paul that we make enemies when we invade their territory political and militarily.

But power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

WHich country has the most Weapons of Mass Destruction?

What country has the most power.

And that is just the power the allow us to see.

We know that our secret weapons are not made publicly known for decades after their developent. SO tell me what secret powers our most powerful countries hold.

Especially since the Kennedy assassination, American politicians are subject to the powers that allo them to rule. They do what they are told or they die.

Are they inherently bad or just afraid?
Pachomius
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Joined: January 4th, 2008, 5:29 pm

Is there a genuine morality that all men want to observe?

Post by Pachomius »

For my own part, I see that the more money and power people have the more they are immoral they are in regard to the morality that is what I might call traditional.

Then also the more control we have over physical nature the more we change our morality so that what was immoral just fifty years ago is now indifferent, at most only for people who are still into their traditional religion which two thousand years back like for example has already prohibited promiscuous sex.


What about myself? I don't have a lot of money and practically no power over other people except my two kids and my wife who is my co-equal (no, no power over her, but we play a continuous balancing act which so far and I hope will continue to function productively for us both and the kids, or our family and home).

Now, consider the owners a philosophy forum elsewhere, which owners just now banned me for discussing with them most civilly about why they deleted my thread, they have the raw power so they don't reason but they just eliminate you for wanting to reason with them; if they don't possess that raw power from being owners, they would not be eliminating me from that forum, but instead they will subscribe to the policy of free inquiry and free speech.


I am really very sad, but that is the way things are with humans as with animals, only humans for being intelligent are worse for they pervert their intelligence to do evil on fellow humans.

To do evil to fellow humans, I guess that would be the most essential basis of immorality.

Yes, I am more and more cognizant of what evil is all about.


Are politicians inherently bad? They are inherently practical and ruthless in the drive to get to power, and when they get to power and thus money also, they will get even more practical and ruthless to stay in power. Inherently practical and ruthless, thus because many a practical and ruthless act is immoral, they are inherently exposed to and do fall into immorality more often and in a greater scale than ordinary mortals.


Pachomius
james1951
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Joined: January 8th, 2008, 3:44 pm

Post by james1951 »

I suppose those who are not ruthless would not maintain power for long. Thus making politicians that do last inherently ruthless.
Pachomius
Posts: 176
Joined: January 4th, 2008, 5:29 pm

Are pliticians evil?

Post by Pachomius »

I like to come back to the question if politicians are inherently bad.

Perhaps we should ask not bad but evil.


Let's try to work out a consensus at this point in time in the history of learning and knowledge, what in a way is the metaphysics of evil.



And let us not be deterred by the worry that we might commit a piece of philosophy thinking and writing that is low quality; because if we do, then we have enslaved ourselves to not think and write of anything except as the established self-appointed guards of philosophy would have us think about and write about, nothing new and different but everything repetition of old questions and old answers or non-answers, provided you don't have your feet on terra firma; if you so much as say something with your feet on terra firma and your blood flowing and your flesh feeling cold and heat and pain, they will delete your writing and exterminate you from the philosophy publishing world which they defend like a most treasured piece of artifact worth storage in the basement of an archaeological museum.



This is my view, the metaphysical evil at this time of human learning and knowledge is for me still that infringement of the Golden Rule in human interactions, namely:
  • Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto youself.
So, for me, metaphysical evil is
  • Doing unto others what you don't want others to do unto yourself.

Let's discuss this and see if we can arrive at some consensus, namely, metaphysical evil, and then apply our consensus on metaphysical evil to politicians, are they inherently evil?


Pachomius
james1951
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Joined: January 8th, 2008, 3:44 pm

Post by james1951 »

I really think what you have said is very clear. WHat is there to discuss about it?
Invictus_88
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Post by Invictus_88 »

james1951 wrote:I suppose those who are not ruthless would not maintain power for long. Thus making politicians that do last inherently ruthless.
John Major wasn't ruthless, and he was in power for a fair time.
TimLear
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Joined: December 14th, 2015, 9:15 pm

Re: Are politicians inherently bad?

Post by TimLear »

cynicallyinsane wrote:To gain political power, a person must lie, cheat, and manipulate people. Are politicians inherently bad?
Politicians are salespeople. They only do what it takes to make the sale. Its the people they throwing the pitch to that determines what pitch they throw. If a politician is in charge of a nation full of ignorant people who preferred to being lied to, then they will lie to get the job.
If a politician is in charge of a nation whose population is full of integrity and prefers outstanding results over lip service, you will end up with outstandings leaders.

It not the leaders at fault, its the people below them.
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Hereandnow
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Re: Are politicians inherently bad?

Post by Hereandnow »

OBVIOIUSLY!!!!!: If they're conservative republicans they're bad; if they're liberal democrats, they're good.
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