Wednesday 14 January 2015

Doubting the Sound Bite.

An old favourite adage of mine is:

To serve is nobler than to rule.

Let’s take an obvious example. Nelson Mandela was a server. He sacrificed his liberty and spent his life serving the causes of justice and equality. Hitler, on the other hand, was a ruler.

Like all convenient sound bytes, however, it omits to mention the complications. What of those who serve their perception of God’s will by murdering people? And what of those rulers who rule not for the sake of self-aggrandisement, but selflessly in the interests of their subjects. There have probably been a few.

It’s why I rarely coin or quote convenient sound bytes.

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