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Comment by whack | Hacker News Reader

Sounds to me like the president has a multitude of skeletons in her closet, through which she's being blackmailed. Or perhaps she's just a puppet, under someone else's control all along.

Maybe I'm just overly cynical, but I'm not too surprised to hear stories like this. Our political process is just so dysfunctional, that I don't think it's possible for a normal, worthy leader to actually win the election. The only way to get to the top is to sell out your integrity in one way or another.

We wonder why our leaders are so morally bankrupt, when really, our process is explicitly designed to weed out anyone who isn't.

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I'm reminded of a quote (not sure who by, and I'm paraphrasing) along the lines of;

"Those who desire power make the worst leaders, those who don't make the best."

Basically anyone who wants to be leader, probably shouldn't be. Not sure how you would resolve a dilemma like that though.

I've always felt a modern version of Sortition would be ideal;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

You may find this article [1] from the guardian interesting.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/18/against-electi...

“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

This is an intellectually lazy and overly cynical view of human nature. The reason politicians seem so terrible is not that they were the dredges of human morals and character to begin with, but because a) power corrupts, b) the stronger the light you shine, the worse every flaw looks.

Do you ever make mistakes in your job? Things that, in hindsight, were non-optimal? Of course you do! And in most jobs that's not a big deal, but when you're a head of state, even a slight error in judgment can get you torn to pieces in the press. And since positive news isn't news, most of what anyone hears about a given president will likely be bad, so inevitably you've mostly heard bad things about what a president (or national-level politician) has done in the past. Hence, everyone seems terrible.

It's meant to be a bit of dark humor. Sometimes the folly of humanity (including much of what you bring up) can make us cynical, angry, or depressed. Being able to have a laugh at those troublesome aspects of human nature is one way some of us can find a bit of a respite.

I realize it's meant to be somewhat humorous, but I also think it's meant to be taken seriously; or at least, there are a lot of people with exactly the viewpoint espoused in that quote.

This is where Jesus comes in: We must get everyone mature and not be greedy.

Also my favorite, Epicurus: Epicureanism: Having enough wealth that is enough to get you your Freedom is enough. More that that won't make you happy. Instead you'll need two more things: Friends and "time for Self understanding".

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This and positively probably Marxism (maybe not revolution, but effective destruction of big corp capitalists is a must). After capitalism is destroyed. The first two paragraphs I wrote will be needed.

> Those who desire power make the worst leaders

But bringing it up here diminishes the absurdity of this case. This line stood out to me: "Her corruption was not self-interested at all. If anything, her corruption was self-sacrificing in favor of Choi Soon-sil."

Park Geun-hye has not used her powers for her own sake. She allowed herself to be humiliated in ways large and small, and eventually destroyed her own administration, for someone else's petty convenience. It is completely out of line with even a cynic's portrait of a selfish and power-hungry politician.

Just a result of the ruling class being so tiny and geriatric that the public is left voting for the children and wives of ex-rulers. These people have few redeeming qualities when compared to people outside of that class.

It's widespread, not just South Korea.

After a string of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton[?], we in USA can cast no stones. It's not as though a Trump win today would give one any hope on this measure; Ivanka and Donnie Jr., at least, are each just another popular reality show away from high political office.

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