Both Germany and the Netherlands have long-serving political leaders. Both countries are facing serious and ongoing scandals. Might this be a logical consequence of long-reigning (absolute) power? Lord Acton (1834-1902) once stated:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men [] “.
Both countries share another similarity: these scandals are about money (eg, Dutch childcare benefits, indemnification of thousands of Dutch homeowners for gas drilling damages, BaFin, German face mask procurement, FREP, Wirecard). Money is the main belief system in the Power domain of the 7 Belief systems.
There’s another similarity: both countries have political parties favouring nationalism rather than globalism. In both countries, nationalistic parties face a cordon sanitaire, which represents a refusal by mainstream and/or center parties to cooperate with nationalistic political parties.
The Great Divide between Nationalism and Globalism is also an ideological fight between (cultural) Identity versus Power. It’s intriguing that Germany’s intelligence agencies have requested a judge to approve spying on the third-largest (nationalistic and opposition) political party of that country (eg, BBC, DW, Guardian).
Often, Globalism shows a (complete) disregard for Nationalism (eg, EU against Hungary, Poland, UK). Hence, my 2017 blog: the arrogance of Globalism vs the ignorance of Nationalism.
China is showing us the glimpse of a new Great Divide: between Ideology and Pragmatism. The success of Chinese pragmatism (eg, foreign globalism and domestic nationalism) is likely to affect political choices in other countries (eg, EU, USA). One could argue that the global Britain concept is already mirroring Chinese pragmatism.
An underlying problem is that all Power wants to retain its power, regardless of identity, ideology or pragmatism. A solution might be a maximum term limit (eg, US presidents). I think, feel and believe that the Dutch PM and German Chancellor have overstayed their term in office (eg, the Atlantic). This might be the answer to my blog’s title.
Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.
A quote from A Confession (1882) by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), a Russian writer
What’s Wrong (2017) by PVRIS
band, lyrics, video, Wiki-band, Wiki-song
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
0 Comments