Translation of excerpts from Robert Heinlein’s book, Take Your Government Back - part 5

“Mom knows best!” And “Father is always right!”

The typical habit of older people is to nourish young descendants with sayings, such as “The older, the wiser!”. Young people in response are offended and indignant, until they themselves are old enough to teach the next generation.

These sayings are true to the extent that this tradition continues. Of course, it's nice to see the wisdom fostered by decades of life. Elderly politicians rarely meet real sages, such as George Norris, Henry Stimson, and Justice Holmes, who inspire us no less than a monument to Lincoln. However, in most cases, what looks like mature wisdom is only experience, knowledge of precedents and familiarity with details.

Once in politics, our elderly citizens are usually firmly convinced that their age gives them the right to respectful attention from their younger colleagues, who, in turn, assume that once they are older, then all these years they have cultivated patriotism and social responsibility.
But not necessarily so! Although there are bright exceptions, most of our elderly citizens are tremendously greedy, selfish, unpatriotic, and devoid of any sense of social responsibility, especially when compared to their children.
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While I was not accused of bias, I hasten to note that I myself am far from being a youth. I have already reached the twilight of life, suffer from shortness of breath, and have grown a belly. Young girls, to my chagrin, have already begun to call me "sir" and get up when they talk to me.

Speaking here about old men, I mean not only the inhabitants of political posts and do not hint at the personnel policy of our Congress, where decrepitude is not regarded as weakness, but rather is a virtue that allows you to occupy important positions in committees. I will not argue about the "Nine Elders" - members of the famous composition of the Supreme Court under President Roosevelt. On the contrary, it seems to me that people engaged in politics retain their youth longer than their apolitical peers. (Try to run over a seventy-year-old congressman during the election campaign, covering him with an umbrella from the sun - the elder will drive you to exhaustion!)

So in this book I will not say anything about the problem of decrepitude of the holders of political posts. I will talk about the wise citizens around you, your neighbors, parents, grandparents and grandparents. They love children and pets, they look good in church and at the family table, but in the political sense, most of them are the most rabid collection of decrepit vultures that you can find.

Keep this in mind when you start bypassing your polling station. I myself am sad to say so. I love apple cakes that my great aunt bakes, I love her gray curls and wrinkled smile, just like you love your older relatives. But my opinion about their political incapacity is dictated by experience.

Here is a typical example of it: a few years ago, I went around the constituency, located on two sides of the street. The rich lived on one side of the street, the poor lived on the other. I interviewed young and old, rich and poor, men and women.

Of course, I expected to find some difference in the points of view of those living on opposite sides of the street. But I was very surprised to find an amazing, and almost unanimous similarity of opinions on one point in both the rich and the poor representatives of the older generation. Do you think this was a question regarding the welfare and future of the district and its inhabitants? No matter how wrong! The elderly poor wanted to pay $ 200 or more from the county each month — an amount that exceeded their salary until they retired. They had a damn what money the district would pay this pension to them! The rich old people wanted to get more profit from their real estate, deposits, dividends and all other investments, and they were even more damned how it will affect the district's economy!

In the elections, of course, they voted for different candidates and for different election programs, except in cases where the candidate managed to tame both of these groups of voters. But the motivation of both groups was the same and shameless - narrow-minded egoism, short-sightedness, and completely disregard for the future of their descendants and their country.

And they were not driven by a shortage of cash for food. The egoism of the starving person can be understood. But I did not see either on one side of the street, neither hungry nor frozen, it was a state with the most favorable climate in our country and conditions for human prosperity. What I encountered was the common meanie senile greed.

It seems that something greatly changes in the minds of most people when their age exceeds fifty. They begin to think about the humanity around them only in terms of the benefits that can be obtained from it. The identity of these people begins to degrade due to being removed from humanity, and their spiritual life begins to roll down until it slides down to the lowest level — simple animal reflexes. In order for a person to remain a person, it is absolutely necessary for him to take care of someone else besides himself. And sadly, many of us, reaching the age when their children grow up, and no longer need custody and care for their future, do not find, than to replace the departed concerns. Only a small proportion of older people, the best and most humane of us, extend their care, which is not so necessary for their grown children, to the children all over the world — the future of our nation and of all humanity.

A mature citizen who has managed to accomplish this difficult change of reference points is a happy find, and most likely he will become your best colleague in political work. From dawn to dusk, he will work for the good of society, without the slightest expectation of gain for himself personally. He, as a rule, has enough free time to be useful, his opinions are heeded, but special physical strength and health are not required in politics, even a decrepit and frail old man can cope with his work.

I remember one elderly lady named Laura, who became the mainstay of many of our campaigns. When I met her, she was almost seventy years old, and she lived quite poorly. So, besides the fact that she agitated at her polling station and agitated her friends, she also worked as the administrator of our headquarters, where she dealt with our agitators and visitors, accepting them with delightful old-fashioned politeness. The main thing that interested her in appeals of visitors is whether the problem of the visitor is his personal problem, or is it a question concerning all that needs to be solved for public benefit. And she never remained indifferent to the problem of the whole society. She understood the problem, decided how to act fairly in relation to the problem, and acted on the basis of the decision made. I recall with pleasure how she threatened the chairman of the school board with a finger, swearing abusively all his department in the following way: “You gentlemen should be ashamed! How dare you brazenly declare to me, a citizen and taxpayer of this state, that you are not going to fulfill your direct official duties! ”

The question that caused this verbal attack, was not at all her personal, but concerned a case of discrimination against people who were not even her relatives. But Laura won the fight, and the school department backed off. (By the way, when you become a politician, supervise school departments especially carefully, the constitutional rights of our citizens are violated there even more often than in courts).

And now let's summarize some results.

Religious communities, women and elderly citizens got a lot in this chapter, and it will be more pleasant for me to notice that you can find the most effective and altruistic volunteers in these same groups. Combat grandmothers and grandfathers, warlike housewives and priests, crusaders, will become your attacking units. In defense and in the rear, you will serve young people who have not attained, as a rule, thirty-five years. If at this age a person cannot be encouraged to act for the benefit of society and the country, then it is an immoral type in front of you who cares only about his own interests. Young people are easy to convince to participate in volunteer political activities. They have not yet acquired the obstinate egoism of the older generation, they are passionate, energetic, and are optimistic about the future.

Of all these four groups - youth, older generation, women in adulthood, and members of communities, only with young people can they start working right away without fear. Representatives of all other groups should be treated with some caution, until they prove with their work that they bring real benefit to volunteer politics.
Of particular note are representatives of religious communities. Not only can they not bring any benefit, they can even harm your cause. If at the same time they have a sober mind, and they have loved mankind as themselves, then they produce remarkable altruistic politicians. However, too often, those who are smart are not altruistic, and those who are so are not too smart. Catholic priests usually do not possess both of these qualities, so it is better not to discuss issues that are too complicated with them. If you are a Catholic, then the problem of communication disappears. The same, only to a lesser extent, can be said about the rabbis

All politicians are crooks!

It is not true. And I think that this political stereotype caused more harm to our country than any other.
This is not true even if it is applied only to professional politics and its leaders. They are no more dishonest, but rather their honesty is even higher than the arithmetic mean honesty of their fellow citizens outside of politics.

I know that this statement is contrary to popular opinion, and is aware of political corruption, bribery, svoyachestve, official privileges, the connivance of crime and racketeering, so poisoning our daily lives
However, think about how a typical political professional works. His goal is to remain in power not only for the term for which he was elected, but also for subsequent terms. And in order to be chosen for the next term, he needs the majority of his customers to remain satisfied with his work. His customers are his voters, including us.

Despite all these cases of coercion and intimidation of voters and frauds with vote counting, the situation is very rare (I even want to write, never occurs) when citizens, outraged by the activities of the politician elected to office, cannot remove him from power, or even jail him . In our country, a politician cannot wander at his own pleasure with Hitler’s impunity. He should, with his work in power, in general, arrange those who elected him.
Therefore, a successful political professional should remain fairly honest. How honest is it depends on the integrity of its voters. His success is due to whether he can give the public what the public really wants, and not what each individual from this public wants in words, especially when he scolds in his kitchen "these crooks" from the city duma.

Have you ever bribed the traffic police so that they do not write out a fine for violation of traffic rules? Exhorted the low-wage inspector of construction supervision, thrusting ten to twenty dollars into his palm to close his eyes to a violation of building codes? Did you go to prostitutes? Have you bought contraband alcohol? Have you dealt with the black (or some kind of "light gray") market? ..

If you have ever done any of the above, then you are honest to no more corrupt officials. A person who approves of the death penalty should not despise the executioner. Offering a petty bribe to a familiar official does not have the moral right to be indignant when he learns that dishonest politicians steal money from the city treasury. How can you expect that a judge you bribed on Monday to save you from a parking ticket will refuse on Tuesday for a bribe to justify a larger defendant in a proven crime? The difference here is only in scale, but not in the essence of what is happening. You, a private individual, are involved in corruption, so to speak, as a retail buyer. The official with whom you deal in this transaction is a professional who sells wholesale corruption.

Perhaps you have never done any of the above. I knew a lot of people who had never done anything like that. But even if you are one of those, you probably have acquaintances, or neighbors involved in something like that. Sometimes they justify themselves by the fact that the established system forces them to go for such actions. But almost always it is not. Even if this is the system, why didn't they try to fix the existing system? Maybe someday I will find out the answer to this question.

Thus, the responsibility for political unscrupulousness is divided between the political mafia and the people. I have already said that, as a rule, the honesty of a professional politician is higher than the average honesty of the population he rules. And I will try to prove it logically.

For a start, let's agree that the politician we are talking about year after year remains in power, he is not from a sort of politicians who are soaring swiftly to power, taking absolutely impossible obligations, and just as quickly departing from their post. The remaining political professional is an entrepreneur. Like all businessmen, he makes various deals all his workday, which will bring profit over time. These transactions are very similar to those made by classic businessmen, that is, both parties to them benefit in one way or another from the transactions, and they should be, if not entirely legal, then at least not very foul-smelling. so that disgruntled citizens do not organize protesting initiative groups. Most of these deals look quite decent, and certainly more legitimate than the day-to-day work of used car dealers, cosmetics dealers, press service professionals, the funeral business, and alternative education schools.

However, the business of a professional politician differs from the above legal and respected areas of activity with one important point. Political deals are made orally, and when concluding these deals, the politician usually promises to do something for the other party in the future. At the same time, the promise given to them can be trusted more than the payment checks issued by many people.

How can this be? (You’ll see for yourself in your experience when you become a politician, but now let's prove it mathematically). The fact is that a professional politician makes deals verbally. Political agreements are not written down on paper and not signed as treaties. They are concluded in the course of a dialogue, like, “Okay, Joe, next week I will meet with the commission members and settle everything” or “Agreed, we will support your candidate” or “In six weeks that street will be asphalted”. And it's all.

So a professional politician must keep his word, otherwise he will fly out of business.
And that's great. At that time, in order to make ordinary people fulfill their promise, a contract is needed, and sometimes a lawsuit, the politician will fulfill the promise given to him without objection, even if the situation has changed, and he, while fulfilling his obligations, will incur financial losses , or will face other difficulties. Because his business reputation is everything for him, and he does not want to risk it.
I think I hear your incredulous cry. After all, everyone knows that in politics false promises are spread just like flies around garbage dumps. So it depends on what promises. Promises of reform? Promises of a newly elected candidate inspired by the victory? Or a promise made by a successful political professional during a business conversation in his armored car? If you know a case when the promise of the last kind was not fulfilled, I will be very grateful to you if you write to me about it, and please tell us more about it so that I can describe it.
So, when professional politicians promise, they are guided by what, as experience tells them, most people really want to get. Tom Pendergast of Kansas, nicknamed The Machine, who is now retired, was an excellent example of such a politician. He decided precisely those concerns of his voters, which they were most worried about, and therefore remained in power for more than a quarter of a century. People needed good pavements, and they were not interested in their price. And in Kansas, during the whole period of the rule of the Machine, all the streets were perfectly paved.Parents wanted good schooling for their children, and Old Pendergast made sure that school education councils consisted of decent people and forbade education officials to put sticks in their wheels.

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According to rumors, it is Pendergast, due to the large number of murders in the coastal part of the city, issued in Kansas the notorious decree banning all shooting south of twelfth street. I do not know whether it was he who issued the decree, or not, however, it should be noted that dear citizens did not care about those murders. Later, when the Boss grew old and stopped paying attention to such trifles, shooting began to be heard already in the neighborhoods where dear citizens lived: the gangsters had moved there and cozy settled in luxurious apartments.
This was the beginning of the end of the career of Tom Machine. Because, having weakened the reins of government, he allowed things to happen that his voters really did not arrange. After a little more time, Pendergast became so old and decrepit that he could no longer participate in the election campaign personally. And then the staff of his campaign headquarters decided to give him a gift - to win elections for him. “Dead souls” among the voting voters had previously been applied in the Kansas elections, but the elections of that year, in terms of frauds, surpassed all the previous ones (or slipped below all of them). The majority of the votes cast for Pendergast were so overwhelming, and the votes cast by the opposition were in such a minority that the Federal Court, after investigating the elections, easily found tons of evidence of vote fraud and crowds of witnessesready to swear they voted against the Machine.

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But the biggest loss for the citizens was a change in their attitude towards civil integrity. “Dear citizens” became skeptical and distrustful about the very idea of ​​honest and efficient work of the city authorities, and stopped believing in their own ability to change something. And such an opportunity appeared from them more than once. But the townspeople were too indifferent and skeptical to really try to remove Boss from power. When the changes nevertheless came, they occurred only thanks to the Boss’s old age and cohesive efforts from outside the city, which were not undertaken by its inhabitants.

France to the decline led to a situation painfully similar to that in Kansas.

If professional politicians were such terrible villains as kitchen kitchens draw them, it would be much easier to carry out reforms and eliminate them from power. But, apart from dishonesty that does not exceed the average public dishonesty, and a scrupulous attitude towards their own business reputation, successful political merchants have many other advantages, regardless of how many bribes they take and how deeply they put their hands into the treasury. They are friendly, will never refuse to help, are tolerant of human handicaps, have self-control and self-control, excellent diplomats, and they can be relied on in private matters. They are not arrogant and show the most attentive attitude to the problems of people turning to them for help.

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I am in no way going to discuss in this book either racism or oppression of various minorities. And not at all because I am trying in such a way to protect them from attacks. Both of our main political parties officially and completely unambiguously take a position condemning such phenomena, despite the provocative speeches of individual leaders and groups, against the background of noisy protests of members of one party, and the reprehensible tacit consent of members of another.
Professional politicians understand democracy better than many of those who condemn them. Professionals treat voters democratically, regardless of race or religion. That is why minority rights disadvantaged support the henchmen of the party mafias with such enviable regularity.

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6
Part 1, where there are links to all other parts