Sunday, May 10, 2009

The Paradox of Politics

The paradox goes back to Plato: It would be good if good people ran things, but a truly good person is not going to be willing to play the games that they need to play in order to position themself to run things. The games are generally just too compromising.

What is especially troubling about this paradox is that it is always with us, and I don't believe that in centuries of thinking about it, anyone has come up with a particularly good way to overcome it.