Issue167 『越洋农场第十次作业』By Alfred

alfred0516UID: 2214165

167． "It is impossible for an effective political leader to tell the truth all the time. Complete honesty is not a useful virtue for a politician."
167．有效力的政治领导者在任何时候都告诉真相是不可能的。对于政治家来说，太坦白不是美德。

※坦白是人类的美德，作为一个人应该坦白。
※我们可以拿道德标准来assess一个individual，但我们不能拿道德标准来judge一个领导；因为领导者实际上不是一个人，而是一个角色。我们判断一个领导者是否是合格的领导者的时候，并不是看他是否说了实话，而是看他能否团结他所领导的集体，在所在领域里面取得竞争的优势。而对于他是否欺骗群众，是否说谎则只与个人品德有关。※当然，我们并不是说领导者在任何时候都可以说谎。领导者在生活种又扮演这许多不同的角色：父亲，孩子，朋友，情人等等。因此，当他们不以领导人身份出现的时候，他们应该做到绝对的坦白和真诚。

WORDS: 530          TIME: 上午 1:03:26          DATE: 2006-8-2
It has been widely discussed on whether an effective political leader should be honesty at any time. Some say that it is inevitable for politicians to tell lies; while others claim that honesty is not an indispensable requirement for politicians. But here, I just want to add that this problem needs reconsideration via case-by-case study.

An individual should be honesty. Honesty is one of the most glorious moral norms of us human beings, which enables social members in a harmonious relationship, strengthening the development of our civilization. Therefore, everyone, male or female, whites and blacks, the eastern or the western, should try to be honesty. Politicians, especially effective political leaders, should hew to this norm, because their titles require them to be models of all people, and there would be millions of eyes down there looking at them. Their behavior would affect that of all social members.


However, honesty is not an indispensable requirement of politicians. Of course, the moral standard we used is to assess an individual, yet we could not use a moral standard to judge a politician, as politician is actually not an individual. It is just a role. When we judge whether a politician is an eligible political leader, we won’t care so much about whether he or she tells the truth, more importantly, we will focus on whether he or she is competent in uniting his people and make a hit in the competition. Honesty only has something to do with personal moral qualities of individuals.


For example, Britain politicians’ dishonesty is known to all. Cherie Blair, the wife of the president, bought two villas in Australia with piles of Bucks in 2004 when British people said it is a real extravagance and therefore questioned the real source of so much money. To our surprise, the top politicians, whose salaries come largely from the tax of British people, equivocated and even told a lie without further ado. More surprisingly, we find that even in such a situation, they can still get the support from most of the British people. The sole reason lies in that no one can achieve better prosperity of Britain as what Tony Blair and his government officials is doing.  Honesty has little to do with an effective leader as long as he or she can fulfill his or her obligation as a leader.

Before I come to my conclusion, I want to add that, the vindications above don’t mean that politicians could be a liar at any time. Indeed, “leader” is a role, yet at the same time, he or she plays various roles in his or her daily life-- parent, child, friend, or lover, etc—they are an individual as well. Therefore, when he or she appears as a common individual, he or she should be extra honest; while as just a leader, it will not so important.

In conclusion, honesty is of great importance to every individual. It is a moral norm that every social member should be in conformity with. We can assess a person with moral standard, but we can never use it to judge a leader, as to some extend, “leader” is none but a role.