That would be no problem, because I'm the LAW!
When I heard that word, somehow this phrase is an early sign of power corrupting people. As people gain power to the point of being able change the law to bend in what way it seems convinent, then it is a spark that will lead to the fire of corruption, nepotisim, and cronyism.
One quote come from Plato's Crito in which recollects Socrates last days sums it up nicely:
One quote come from Plato's Crito in which recollects Socrates last days sums it up nicely:
Socrates: Consider it in this way. Suppose the laws and the commonwealth were to come and appear to me as I was preparing to run away and were to ask, " Tell us, Socrates, what have you in your mind to do? What do you mean by trying to escape but to destroy us and think that a sate can exist and not be overthrown, in which the decisions of the law are of no force, and are disregarded and underminded by private individuals?" How shall we answer questions like that, Crito?When talking about the movie again, another issue that repeatedly is popped up is that it seems education shouldn't be a huge factor in considering elected public officials. One of the things that popped into my mind is about how presidental elections somehow turn into strange affairs - and an example of how real life is so similar - we can see well in the Phillipines election in which Estrada and Poe were two popular megamovie stars in their country who ran for president. Both of these candidates had little education(primary), which makes them a huge contrast to their more highly sophisticated alternative which are usually old policians with high education. In the example of Estrada, he won the presidental race, and quickly had popularist policies up and running to appease the poor whereas he plundered the country with his cronies and was ousted a few years later.
In the example of Poe he lost the election to Arroyo, who currently is in hot water over her admission that she may have cheated by persuading election officials to help her out in the last election. As we noticed these are examples of poorly qualified candidates who has a huge voter base due to personal charisma. When talking about education, I do find that since most politicians cheat, education doesn't seem to be a big matter. The point that I find as a paradox is that the more clever and educated the candidate is, the more likely the scale of the the cheating would be. As noted, you don't need to look for for example of this. In Thailand, all Member of Parliment are required to have at least bachelor level education. Somehow by adding this requirement, we see new creative and more worrisome forms of cronyism and corruption budding on a regular basis, which I do assume isn't the intended result of the law.
As noted, education and moral don't really go hand in hand. Higher education doesn't guarantee better moral, its completely discrete.
If you talk about moral, we can easily power can corrupt a person's moral. Now some people will say if religion plays a huger part in the government, then morality would not be a big issue. However, I'm a huge opponent of that. One of the most dangerous thing that has happened in our World is the rise of fundamentalist elements. People who have strong religious conviction and are willing to go beyond normal means to achieve their goal, have little reasoning capability due to blind faith, and insensitive to the multiplicity in the world. Some good example of people who have moral that are straight and exact to the book could be pointed at the Taliban. In some cases, I feel that people following religion do it for unholy causes. From what I see donation is similar to investment to god. Praying for good fortune later, I feel its is like to withdraw some of the investment from god. Somehow it makes sense in financial terms doesn't it?
That brings to the other side of the spectrum, there is money that plays a huge part in swaying a person's moral to the dark side. Somehow I feel the hawks in Washington are calling to the call of Money, though claiming to be morally sound on a religious sense. Somehow I find it ironic, but as we note, even the question of moral, virtue, and the sense of right and wrong would go around in a full circle much like asking which comes first - a chicken or an egg?
So after a long and rambling talk, it just seems that I've just ran into circles and back again. Somehow I've come to the conclusion that most politicans are lying scumbags, and no matter what education and background they come from, they are usually corrupted due to the allure of power and the swaying influence of religious fundamentalism and/or money which makes it a deadly combination. The only difference that makes one politician look better than another usually lie on their ability to manipulate the media. As noted, you should know that appearing to be good is alot easier than being good, and it just seems that too many people are taking this approach these later lean and mean years.
Though I may sound quite sour at my inability to change how many of our politicans plunder our country, somehow it warms my heart when I read Plato's Apology when I came to a part in which Socrates mentioned about an episode in his short foray into public life as a politician and his dealing with an accuser that he was a corrupter of youth:
The only office of State which I ever held. O men of Athens was that of senator: the tribe Antiochis, whic is my tribe, had the presidency at the trial of the generals who had not taken up the bodies of the slain after the battle of Arginusae; and you proposed to try them in a body, contrary to law, as you all thought afterwards; but at the time, I was the only one of the Prytanes who was opposed to the illegality, and I gave my vote against you; and when the orators threatened to impeach and arrest me, and you called and shouted, I made up my mind that I would run the risk, having law and justice with me, arather than to take part in your injustice because I feared imprisonment and death. This happened in the day of
democracy.
Somehow at the end of this blog, I want to dedicated this to our PM, wish you another belated birthday (which was 2 days ago), and hopefully someday you can be the man you claim to be during your first steps into the Thai political scene without having to rely with all the media circus and spindoctors to cover your tracks.
