5 June 2009

They revile Kissinger for realpolitik.  Which is?  Dealing with people/countries as they are, not as we wish them to be.  And who is they?  Need I say?

We are now in the confluence of a great whirlpool of denial - fantasy.  We wish to deal with the people of the world as we wish them to be; but they are not as we wish them to be, and are unlikely to be so.  Why not?  Because all have their own self-interests as defined by them and their circumstances.   They will do what's best for themselves - as defined by their leaders of course.

But the people themselves are no better - they will do what's best for themselves and not for a nebulous, what's best for most of us.  Can you blame them?  That's the problem; we might have great empathy for our compatriots, even the world, but what governs us is what's best for us, each of us.  It's called self-preservation.  As some might say, if I don't who will?  Good question.  The government?  That seems to be the latest and greatest hope.  But the government will endeavor to do what's best for most, not individuals, who will inevitably be lost in the shuffle, unless they are among "the most."   That, in an economic sense, has been alluded to as spreading the wealth, good if you are he to whom it's spreaded, not so good if you are he from who it's spreaded.

And politicians lie?  Sure they do; what choice do they have?  If they tell us what we need to know - the hard truth that means sacrifice on our parts - we will vote them out of office.  If they tell us what we want to hear and it doesn't work out that way, we will vote them out of office.  That's their self-preservation.  They are hypocrites?  Same explanation.  They are naive and deluded by what they wish were so?  Ah, that's another story.  They may lie to us because they must to self-preserve, but when they lie to themselves?  That we cannot tolerate, because that gets us into our own self-preservation.

Is our government lying to itself?  You tell me.