Who would go into politics? It’s a dirty game of character assassination, back-stabbing, spin – and that’s on a good day.
I used to be dismissive of politics, until I read that politics is simply the art of leading people. The art of leading people.
Is that why politics is so brutal? Because people are so hard to lead? Opinionated, fickle, self-absorbed, arrogant and ungrateful – and that’s just the interested ones.
Add to that a media that has reduced policy to press release, rhetoric to retort, and speeches to sound bites – its no wonder so few of substance can be found.
What is perhaps most pernicious of all is that everyone is out to magnify any mistakes one makes, so as to write the person off, as if perfection is plausible.
We need good leaders. Perhaps only good people get good leaders.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.
