Trechos retirados do Times do passado dia 30.06. do artigo "To survive, nations must make tough choices. Voters don't want to hear this."
"A nation is born stoic, and dies epicurean," the historian William Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization. "If war is forgotten in security and peace ... then toil and suffering are replaced by pleasure and ease; science weakens faith even while thought and comfort weaken virility and fortitude."...Yet even now I fear the West hasn't figured out what is going wrong and why. While pundits examine exit polls and consult focus groups, they miss the rot buried so deep in our system that it has become all but invisible. And - if you'll forgive me for being candid on a momentous weekend - it has nothing to do with hopeless leaders, Russian bots, high taxes, low taxes or being members of the wrong trading bloc. The problem is western electorates. Us....Then there is the addiction to low-wage immigration and funny money (otherwise known as quantitative easing) and our abject failure - notably in Europe - to spend adequately (or wisely) on defence....For when you look again, you notice a single and, in my view, unavoidable cause: an inability to make short-term sacrifices to secure a brighter future; to defer instant gratification for long-term success. We have become a civilisation that's all about "now, now, now" and "me, me, me" - the antithesis of what the West once represented....My point is that success for nations, as for individuals, requires tough choices....When Rome was lean and driven, it built infrastructure, created a superb military and grew. A few centuries later - flabby and complacent - it wanted the blessings of success but not the costs. The empire had entered a fantasy land, where expenditure on ever more generous welfare payments and bread and circuses rose beyond the capacity of the state to afford it. So when the money ran out, the emperors debased it, reducing the silver content until the currency was worthless....But the devastating, potentially terminal truth is that a critical mass of voters are not ready to hear this. They are too comfortable in the delusion of their own entitlement, pretending the problem lies with everyone else in this sense, polarisation is another symptom of the rot). And let's not pretend the problem is short election cycles or hopeless politicians, because these retailers - Starmer, Sunak, Biden, Trump, Farage - are merely regurgitating different versions of the fantasy that voters wish to hear, but never daring to tell the whole truth."
Como refere Joaquim Aguiar, ganham-se eleições mas não se ganha legitimidade.
Parte II de III.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário