 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
It would be a complete mistake to decry love of power altogether as a motive. Whether you will be led by this motive to actions which are useful, or to actions which are pernicious, depends upon the social system, and upon your capacities. If your capacities are theoretical or technical, you will contribute to knowledge or technique, and, as a rule, your activity will be useful. If you are a politician you may be actuated by love of power, but as a rule this motive will join itself on to the desire to see some state of affairs realized which, for some reason, you prefer to the status quo.
Source: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, part II: The Conflict of Passions, chapter ２: Politically important desires, n.8
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Russell is right, but it seems that Japanese politicians often exercise power because it is ‘pleasurable’ to do so, rather than because they use their power to realise a good society.
By the way, there are both promising and worrying aspects to Prime Minister Ishiba. While it is good that he is trying to ‘make the rules’ be followed by MPs who have been elected with the support of slush funds and the former Unification Church, there is one aspect in which Ishiba himself is also ‘not following (or breaking) the rules’, and we need to keep a close eye on his words and deeds.
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