WHY POLITICIANS SHOULD LIVE IN FEAR

THE FEAR OF THE PEOPLE IS THE BEGINNING OF GOOD GOVERNMENT

The reason things are all messed up now is that they are not afraid. In fact, they are quite emboldened. And they learn from one another, meaning that each successive change of government assures us only of the improvement of the means of corruption.

The means of corruption have replaced the means of production. The intellectuals are the highway robbers.

In the nation I dream of, people consider it a duty to curse out their leaders, air their dirty laundry and throw in some outrageous lies and accusations just for good balance. It is our culture to not just dissent, but to insult and threaten our leadership. The government must be afraid of the people. They must know that at any moment we may change our mind.

As things stand, governments try to control us. The best of them do and the worst of them are said to ‘lose control.’ But governments shouldn’t even be thinking about control. Control us? They should be trying to survive us.

They must never be allowed to think they control us. They must never think that we are afraid of them or in need of them or in awe of them. They must know that we are suspicious of them and that we are looking for every excuse to try someone new. Like anyone who wants to marry you for your money, they have to prove their loyalty, their respect and their ability.

Like good lionesses, politicians should have to hunt in packs, breaking their backs to please us before we give them any approval, much less our most prized power, our vote.

One wrong move is all it should take to end a political career. And one cover-up is all we should need to dissolve an entire government and call for new elections – let the pieces fall where they may.

I may regret I said that last bit  one day, for leadership brings a need for secrecy that one could never have predicted when outside of it. “All true knowledge is secret” and if sometimes the hoarding of intelligence leads to the misleading of the people, for the benefit of the nation, not to mention ‘de pahty’, well, it’s hard to argue with that.

But I will never regret saying this.

If the government is not afraid of the people, democracy doesn’t work. Tyranny reigns.

They have to be afraid. Very afraid. They have to do things right. At the very least, they have to do things honestly.