I LINKED THIS ARTICLE ON SOUTH AFRICA’S DECLINE YESTERDAY, but it’s worth breaking out this sentence:
The state, rather than the market, became the main site for opportunity and enrichment.
That’s a formula for disaster, but it’s also what the political class in every country tends to push for.
The agents of government should be men and women of integrity. Unfortunately, Read observed, political office tends to rob a person of modesty, humility, and integrity, which make it advisable never to accept a political office. “Office robs men of integrity because they get to thinking that their being in office is more important than integrity. There isn’t anything in life superior to integrity. It is the rock of character on which all else is erected.”
If political office tends to rob men of integrity, contact with the affairs of government must logically be one of the most corrupting of influences to which men are exposed.
Yes.