Aphorisms about politics
The term *polis* once denoted a city; today it refers to the police. What does this tell us
Only a foolish person believes in the existence of “politicians.” There are no politicians, only individuals who engage in politics to varying degrees.
Aristotle, exiled by the Athenians, understood that politics is inescapable—whether we engage with it or not, it engages with us.
Politics is not inherently bad, just as economics, art, or sports are not bad—across all domains of human endeavor, it is only people who are bad, and bad people corrupt every field they touch.
Bad people are most drawn to politics, for it offers the greatest power, making lying, cheating, and plundering most rewarding.
Evil people in politics do not merely seek to lie, cheat, and plunder like the bad; they crave blood and desire to kill.
Even the worst people in politics eventually grow sated and begin to understand what politics truly is. However, evil people in politics never reach satiety.
Hungry people are often bad, for they cease to choose their means to satisfy their hunger. The evil, however, possess a hunger that nothing and no one can satiate - no one besides God.
Politics is one of the noblest and most essential tasks that good people must undertake — above all, to prevent bad people from engaging in it. Evil people, however, cannot be stopped by good people, but only by those who transform into embodiments of love.
The primary task of politics is to divest political power from those in politics and transfer it to the people. Regrettably, only the best and greatest individuals have so far relinquished their own power for the benefit of the people.
The issue lies not in the ingratitude of the people, but in the ingratitude of those in politics.
No one in politics should expect gratitude from the people; rather, they should daily express gratitude to the people for the privilege of engaging in politics.
Politics is infinite, while the work of any individual in politics is finite. Good people in politics are aware of this and thus dedicate most of their time to involving more good people in politics.
Engage in politics, for it inevitably engages with you.
Politics has always had only two functions: organizing living spaces and societal laws. Regrettably, bad people often turn politics into something harmful, whereas evil people transform politics into hell on earth.
Politics is not bad; people are bad.
The worse the people in politics, the more crucial it is for good people to engage in politics.
What distinguishes good from bad people in politics? Good people strive to improve the lives of the people, while bad people seek to improve their own lives at the expense of the people.
What is the difference between evil and love in politics? Evil seeks control and is willing to resort to bloodshed and sacrifice, while love seeks trust and permits neither bloodshed nor sacrifice.
Politics confuses, for bad people in it begin to appear good, and good people bad—but this is only at first glance. Those who delve deeper quickly discern who is good and who is bad. Distinguishing between love and evil is sometimes harder, but there is a trick: those who speak of love while inciting hatred and killing are evil.
Sometimes it seems that all people are bad and all are good and all are evil. But it only seems that way, because in each of us lies the potential for all of these. In truth people are only that what they decide to be.
Anyone who is bad in politics is truly foolish, for in the long run they harm not only themselves but also their children and grandchildren.
Albert Einstein said that two things are infinite: the cosmos and human stupidity—though he wasn’t certain about the cosmos. I hope he included his own stupidity, for he was also a man afterall, not a tree. Sometimes I ask myself, how stupid was Mileva to bind herself to Albert
The best proof of the infinity of human stupidity is how much people admire Einstein’s statement that human stupidity is infinite. Basically everyone seems to think this statement applies only to others.
Those surprised by the extent of malice and stupidity in us humans have yet to participate in serious political discussions.
In politics, it matters not who wins, as long as everyone feels like a winner.
For bad people in politics, only their own victory matters; for good people, it matters that everyone feels like a winner.
Politics does not make people bad; people make politics bad.
A wise person in politics tends to the sheep and seeks those that are lost; a bad person in politics seeks to fence, shear, and milk the sheep; an evil person enters politics as a wolf in sheep’s clothing and leaves behind a blood bath.
Good politics often suffers from poor administration, while bad politics, regrettably, often enjoys highly efficient administration.
The creation of artificial intelligence is a great leap for humanity—with its help, we can all begin to engage in politics while delegating administration to artificial intelligence.
Politics is the struggle of the strong for human hearts; the victor dictates what happens next until defeated by another. The weak, however, do not fight; they merely try to discern the winner in advance and align with them. Regrettably, there are far more weak than strong people, so few fight while many merely observe.