Quote
“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of
principle, stand like a rock.” Thomas Jefferson
News
President Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic Party’s
convention last night was “…dominated by unexplained goals that were often
worthy, but also familiar and incommensurate with the problems at hand,"
according to David Brooks of the New York Times. It was a far cry from the soaring rhetoric of
four years earlier, which carried Obama to victory in the 2008 election.
Voters in America, as in most democracies, have to weigh up the
difference between a candidate’s ability to inspire people with a vision on one
hand, and deliver consistently against their promises on the other.
Declining voter turnout in many elections reflects disillusion
with politics. Two factors stand out: firstly,
there is a resigned acceptance that politicians will probably mislead the
public, or cheat on their spouse – public and private manifestations of the
same character weakness. 20 years ago in
Britain, Cabinet members would resign for either of these misdemeanours.
Secondly, the cult of celebrity, in which style is elevated
over substance. Politicians must look
good, cultivate their personal brand, and be masters of the media to get
elected. However, those talents are not necessarily the
ones needed to make sound judgments, build consensus, and lead others: the
stuff of government.
People are voters for a day, but citizens for the following four
years. The goal of elections is not to
put certain people in power but to hold them accountable for what they
subsequently do with that power. We
undermine the relational realities of democracy when we want politicians to be
celebrities first and foremost, rather than the kind of leader people can trust
to govern their nation well.
Read on...
Oliver Cromwell refused to have his image manipulated by the
media: he insisted that the artist painting his portrait showed him as he
really was, “warts and everything”. Cromwell’s
character and faith helped to shape democracy in Britain; read Nick Spencer’s account
of the Christian sources of British political thought here.
Walk the talk
As the culture increasingly puts more emphasis on style than
substance, is there a danger of investing more in one’s charisma than one’s
character?
The last word
From the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1, 4: “When I
came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to
you the testimony about God… My message and my preaching were not with
wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”
No comments:
Post a Comment