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What power always does is reveal

 
舛添都知事のような政治家を見ていると思い出すのは作家Robert CaroのWhat power always does is revealという言葉。権力は常に腐敗をするわけではなく、権力を握ることでcleanseすることもあると言っている点も興味深いです。まあ彼は単に威張りたかった、偉くなりたかっただけのようですね。そういう人は業者も扱いやすいでしょう。

(昔のブログ記事の再掲)
下記の動画は雑誌TIMEの著者に聞く10の質問と言うコーナーです。権力と言うと"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."という言葉が有名ですが、Power can cleanse as well as corruptやPower corrupts, but you say power also reveals.という側面についても語っていたのが興味深かったです。



(2分あたりから)
One of my favorite lines in your book is that you say “Power corrupts, but you say power also reveals.” I wonder if you could explain what you mean by that.
Sure. Power as you see in my books in the cases someone like Sam Rayburn or in Power Broker Alfred E. Smith. Power can cleanse as well as corrupt. Al Smith is a henchman, a rutheless for Tammany Hall. Till he becomes a governor, then he goes to Tammany Hall and he says “You must free me. What you must do now is to pay a social welfare legislation for our people”. That’s an example of cleansing.

What power always does is reveal. Because when a man or a woman has enough power to do eactly what they want. Then we know what it is that they really wanted all along.

And then Johnson who had voted against Civil Rights legislation so many times that he was the guy who put that through. So you are suggesting that’s what he had always wanted.

That’s a perfect example: Power always reveals. When he was in college, he took time offf to earn money teaching Mexican kids. In Congress he voted against civil rights legislation many times. But when he became President, he told an aide, "I'll tell you a secret. I swore to myself that if I ever had the power to help these kids, I would do it. Now I have the power, and I tell you something. I intend to use it."

インターネット時代にじっくりと書いていくことについて答えている部分もなかなか深い答えだったのでご紹介します。I always have to write stories on what I still had questions that I wanted to ask.やTo me, time equals truth. The more facts you manage to obtain, the closer you will come to whatever truth there is.という言葉は、30年以上もかけてジョンソンの伝記を書いている彼がいうからこそ重みがあります。

(4分45秒あたりから)
I wonder what you think of the speed and brevity of the information age in which we now live?

Well, it’s very foreign to me. You know, to me, when you said why did you leave journalism, it’s because I always have to write stories on what I still had questions that I wanted to ask. To me, time is truth. To me, time equals truth. I mean, there is no one truth, but there are an awful lot of objective facts, and the more facts you manage to obtain, the closer you will come to whatever truth there is. That’s something you can do in writing books. It’s not really something you can do in daily journalism.


Yutaがヒラリーさんに期待するのは彼女の本心は弱者保護などに関心があるからと信じているからです。まあどうなるかわかりませんが。。。
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