Honest politicians really are doomed!

This is another post in the topical series that features alarming and pessimistic politics-related quotations.

These words from Taylor Caldwell appear in the article about the lack of honour in politics:

“An honest politician is either a hypocrite—or he is doomed.” 

Upton Sinclair wrote something that supports this proposition:

“Such was the new technique for the conquest of power. Fool those who were foolable, buy those who were buyable, and kill the rest.”

From Wide Is the Gate (1943)

The above extract reminds me of how potential troublemakers are dealt with in John Christopher's Guardians:

“We are constantly on the alert for trouble...Anyone showing creative intelligence and initiative stands out conspicuously from the mob and can be dealt with.”

“Dealt with” means eliminated! 

Upton Sinclair is yet another writer whose life and works I hope to investigate when I have more time.

More alarming words from Taylor Caldwell

Taylor Caldwell has been referenced in several articles, including a recent one that features some of her alarming words about wars.

Her works, not to mention her life, deserve a closer look, but the reader's dilemma of 'so many books, so little time' applies here. It is always possible to find some good extracts and produce a short article as a compromise however, and I have come across some more quotable material that is particularly relevant to what is happening in the US and the UK - and many other nations. 

This proposition is from The Story of Honoria, an article that was first published in a magazine in 1957:

“It is a stern fact of history that no nation that rushed to the abyss ever turned back. Not ever, in the long history of the world. We are now on the edge of the abyss. Can we, for the first time in history, turn back?”

I am not knowledgeable enough to be able to confirm that in the past no nation that rushed headlong towards disaster ever turned back, but it seems very likely. Perhaps the momentum just carried them along until it was too late to stop. 

I wonder what Taylor Caldwell would think of the current UK and US political situations. We could well be on the brink of an abyss right now.

This is an extract from Captains and the Kings, a historical novel that was first published in 1972:

“...who do you honestly believe rules any nation? The apparent rulers, or the real ones behind the scenes who manipulate a nation’s finances for their own benefit? Mr. Lincoln is as helpless as you and I. He can only, unfortunate man, give his people slogans, and slogans, it would appear, are what the people want. I have yet to hear of a nation that ever rejected a war.” 

Great  minds think alike. This is very similar to what Benjamin Disraeli said about the Hidden Hand. The big question here is, who are these secret rulers and puppet masters?