Duty before power

I imagine most would-be MPs put themselves up for election out of a sense of duty and public service because they have little real power until they get a ministerial appointment and the salary isn’t exactly huge.

I wish we could see duty, not something we just expect of and praise the Queen for but something we expect from all those supposed to be serving the country.

I do see duty like that. Always have.

But human beings are faulty so there will always be exceptions.

I agree, gsm.

I believe most police officers join as a duty not for power.
This applies to most jobs serving the public, nurses, doctors etc.
There will always be a few who seek power over duty.

MPs have a lot of power and influence, its a mistake to think otherwise. The salary is pocket money compared with the money they can make outside Parliament. In fact local councillors weald a lot of power too, a real eye opener if you ever see the workings of Local Government.

power corrpupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely

Many people go into many professions because of a sense of duty, but as soon as they scent the whiff of power, they crumble and after that pursue power and exercise it at every opporunity.

M0nica

^power corrpupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely^

Many people go into many professions because of a sense of duty, but as soon as they scent the whiff of power, they crumble and after that pursue power and exercise it at every opporunity.

Do you think so Monica? I worked in the NHS for over 40 years, and I can’t think of more than one or two people I met in that whole period who had lost their sense of duty. They didn’t always exercise their power in ways that I, or other staff agreed with, because of the political imperatives to do certain things to meet targets, and some lacked the skills to take the staff with them (as in any organisation), but the core motivation was always duty to the public.

So, my reaction was too sweeping? You could be right However, there does seem to have been a lot of power grabbing recently and not in a good way.

Does combining the pursuit of power with a sense of duty make the pursuit of power more virtuous?

I suspect the NHS may, to a certain extent, buck the trend, but the police certainly do not.

I spent a lot of my childhood in and out of hospital and, may be because I was a child, I saw a number of nurses who enjoyed exercising power when they knew the person they exercised it over was too young to protest. I met the others as well and have fond memories of some of the staff who looked after me.

Nelson Mandela, M0nica? I suppose it depends on how you pursue it. I should probably be telling myself not to pick up on simple phrases. There is always more to it

I was talking in the context of those who pursue power to use only for their own purposes. The petty bureaucrats who insist that every punctustion mark of the rules is obeyed,