Friday, February 3, 2012

Huainanzi - Entry 51

Trey Smith

If the ruler is truly upright, then honest people are entrusted with affairs, and the treacherous go into hiding. If the ruler is not upright, then evil people achieve their aims, and the trustworthy go into concealment.
~ a passage from
The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~
I have often heard people opine that they wish we had better candidates to choose from come election time. But why would a decent individual want to get mixed up in the dirty world of politics?

It is common for a person running for office to say that he or she is "throwing their hat in the ring" because they want to serve the public. More often than not, this is a lie. What they really want is power, status, influence and money. Public service is far from their minds.

A person who truly wanted to serve the public would do so in every breath they took and would have no need to run for office. None of us needs a title in order to provide benefits to society. In fact, if we look back through history at those now referred to as sages or social leaders, few, if any of them, ever held a political position. Their service to humankind came in other ways.

To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.

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