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The public has a general distrust toward politicians universally
by Joseph Earnest September 2, 2011
Newscast Media HOUSTON, Texas -- As we enter the presidential election cycle, many politicians will make promises in hopes of attracting voters, yet once elected into office, the same politician often abandon their campaign promises, leaving their voters with buyer's remorse. Such empty promises, are the root to the distrust felt by the public toward elected officials universally.
When voting for a politician, one cannot have 100 percent absolute certainty that the person seeking votes, will keep his or her promises. The French mathematician and psychologist René Descartes summarizes his four rules to obtaining certainty in any area:
The first rule was never to accept anything as true unless I recognized it to be evidently as such: that is, carefully to avoid all precipitations of prejudgment, and to include nothing in my conclusions unless it is presented itself so clearly and distinctly to my mind that there was no reason or occasion to doubt it.
The second was to divide each of the difficulties which I encountered into as many parts as possible, and as might be required for an earlier solution. The third was to think in an orderly fashion, beginning with the things which were simplest and easiest to understand, and gradually reaching toward a more complex knowledge, even treating as though ordered materials which were not necessarily so.
The last was always to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I would be certain nothing was omitted.
After searching endlessly Descartes concluded that the only thing he was certain of was the fact that he was doubting; but doubting was thinking, and thinking necessitated a thinker. Hence he arrived at his celebrated conclusion "Cognito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am.)
Looking at his first rule, we can say that we should never accept anything as true from politicians who make promises and have no record to back it up, or have a questionable record. For the second rule, we should look at all the promises made to us, and based on the likelihood of them being accomplished, we can determine whether a candidate will indeed be able to fulfill them. Third, we should consider the simple promises first in making our evaluations of politicians, then the complex promises last. A simple promise would be, "I will veto such and such a bill." A complex promise would be, "I will end all wars." Arrange the promises from the simplest to the complex and then decide as to whether the candidate making them is likely to keep them. Lastly, your review of a candidate and his or her policies and record should be thorough, such that nothing of importance is disregarded or ignored, as you decide whom to vote for.
Yet even if candidates fit a certain construct and we vote for them, it is not guaranteed that they will maintain a consistent track record of being true to their word. The answer for this can be found in the corruptible nature of power. The more power people achieve, the less they are likely to resist the temptations that come with it.
Nietzsche discovered in his studies that the most basic human motive is the "will to power". He said, "The will to power is the primitive motive force out of which all other motives have been derived."
"The reality is this: The will to every center of power is to become stronger – not self-preservation, but the desire to appropriate, to become master, to become more, to become stronger."
Nietzsche then asked the following questions:
What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power…power itself. What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome. (Kaufmann, 1982, page 570.)
In essence Nietzsche disagreed with anyone who claimed that the basic human motive was self-preservation. He argued that humans do not attempt to preserve themselves; rather they attempt to become more than they were.
This reason is consistent with why politicians tend to be distrusted. First, in order to run for office, they have to have donors. These are the ones who finance the campaigns. Once in office, they are now obligated to return the favor to those who put them in office, in order not just to preserve themselves or their political careers, but in an attempt to gain even more power and influence in their political offices.
It is for this reason that the average voter feels jaded when the very politician he or she elected, seems to pay more attention to the special interest groups and big donors, instead of addressing the grievances of the constituents who put them in office.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau began The Social Contract with the words: "Man is born free, and yet we see him in chains everywhere." (page 5.)
We put our hopes in politicians, only to find those hopes shattered. We expect them to uphold the oath of office they take, yet so many times they allow themselves to be corrupted by the power of that very same office. Somehow, politicians can't seem to use sound reasoning to determine that the very voters who put them in office, are the ones who have the power to vote them out office.
If we look back to classical antiquity, in his book On The Good Life, Cicero tells the story of Timotheus, the famous Athenian statesman, who once had dinner with Plato. Timotheus greatly enjoyed the party; and when he met his host the following day he complemented him in the following terms: “Your dinners are enjoyable not only when one is eating them but on the morning after as well!” (page 104.)
For the point is that when our (politicians) stomachs are filled with a great deal of food and drink, we (they) cannot possibly make proper use of our (their) minds. Thus we (they) tend to disregard or trivialize those who are responsible for our (their) success.
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