It is easy to win trophies but difficult to retain them. There are many dangers, potential and real, to the political power. Even when in power, a man remains a man-a bundle of frailties and an embodiment of weakness. So while doling out favours- and it is essential to show favours for retaining power-personal limitations may not allow him to bless all. this breeds frustration. As realities fall short of expectations, in politics particularly, vindictive campaign to undermine power structure and assert one's own importance, is started.
Some, more arrogant and counting too much on themselves, may form new parties, whereas more subtle diplomats bring a split from within. Thus there are dangers from without, hidden and obvious. So men in power will have to be cautious, unlike Caesar's wife above suspicions, ready to renounce friendship, capable of realignment with others. They will have to be, more or less opportunists to get the best out of the opportunities and doing best to get opportunities like Shelley's West Wind they are destroyers and preservers-destroy that pulls them down and preserve that supports them. Politics is, of course, the craft of retaining power.
If coming to power is meteoric, downfall may be dramatic. The leaders, finding a gap between theory and practice, fall short of the promises, expectations and even obligations. Popular resentment gathers momentum and may come to a head in the form of a revolution. People will have to be calmed down. this needs the craft of propaganda-tell two lies before coming to one truth-and it also presupposes that craft of removing the cause of resentment.Silence must be secured either by making an outward show of observing ethical principles in this unethical game or by fulfilling the promises made to the supporters. Politics is harnessed to retain power.
Politicians' private life is exposed because political rivalries sink down to personal animosity. The opposition tries to tarnish the public image of the people in power. Some projects may fail and other politicians may exploit the situation. If opposition gets the upper hand, the people in power meet an unhappy end. Sometimes, misdeeds of the politicians in power are brought to light. In fact eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and vigilance brings darker spot to light. The people in power may be shaken; a Watergate scandal may rock even Mr. Nixon, the President of America, who was holding one of the most powerful offices among World Governments. It is politician's stubborn attitude, his adherence to his own point of view, his skill to manipulate, his effective lobbying, in short his political moves that will help him to retain power.
Laski, the famous political thinker, said that man in power tries to keep the society static. He endeavours to freez the currents of the social change because their own stability is threatened by change; out of the changes emerge new values which need new adjustment, so such people are reduced to square pegs in round holes. So they try to make the society static. But society by nature is in a process of change; the evolution of life demands social changes. Society is essentially dynamic. It is politics only that can hold, though for some time only, the currents of change.
National politics, in some respects, is more dirty than the international politics; in the former sole aim is to gain power, by hook or by crook whereas in the latter, at least national interest are kept in mind. national politics reduces itself to personality cult-Mao was worshiped and followed, Stalin was considered a prophet and saviour. Building up an image in the modern world of conflicting interest, needs political manipulation. It is another method to retain power. Politics is the Ladder to climb up and the means to consolidate one's gains.
[ Part 1] [ Part 2]
Some, more arrogant and counting too much on themselves, may form new parties, whereas more subtle diplomats bring a split from within. Thus there are dangers from without, hidden and obvious. So men in power will have to be cautious, unlike Caesar's wife above suspicions, ready to renounce friendship, capable of realignment with others. They will have to be, more or less opportunists to get the best out of the opportunities and doing best to get opportunities like Shelley's West Wind they are destroyers and preservers-destroy that pulls them down and preserve that supports them. Politics is, of course, the craft of retaining power.
If coming to power is meteoric, downfall may be dramatic. The leaders, finding a gap between theory and practice, fall short of the promises, expectations and even obligations. Popular resentment gathers momentum and may come to a head in the form of a revolution. People will have to be calmed down. this needs the craft of propaganda-tell two lies before coming to one truth-and it also presupposes that craft of removing the cause of resentment.Silence must be secured either by making an outward show of observing ethical principles in this unethical game or by fulfilling the promises made to the supporters. Politics is harnessed to retain power.
Politicians' private life is exposed because political rivalries sink down to personal animosity. The opposition tries to tarnish the public image of the people in power. Some projects may fail and other politicians may exploit the situation. If opposition gets the upper hand, the people in power meet an unhappy end. Sometimes, misdeeds of the politicians in power are brought to light. In fact eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and vigilance brings darker spot to light. The people in power may be shaken; a Watergate scandal may rock even Mr. Nixon, the President of America, who was holding one of the most powerful offices among World Governments. It is politician's stubborn attitude, his adherence to his own point of view, his skill to manipulate, his effective lobbying, in short his political moves that will help him to retain power.
Laski, the famous political thinker, said that man in power tries to keep the society static. He endeavours to freez the currents of the social change because their own stability is threatened by change; out of the changes emerge new values which need new adjustment, so such people are reduced to square pegs in round holes. So they try to make the society static. But society by nature is in a process of change; the evolution of life demands social changes. Society is essentially dynamic. It is politics only that can hold, though for some time only, the currents of change.
National politics, in some respects, is more dirty than the international politics; in the former sole aim is to gain power, by hook or by crook whereas in the latter, at least national interest are kept in mind. national politics reduces itself to personality cult-Mao was worshiped and followed, Stalin was considered a prophet and saviour. Building up an image in the modern world of conflicting interest, needs political manipulation. It is another method to retain power. Politics is the Ladder to climb up and the means to consolidate one's gains.
[ Part 1] [ Part 2]
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