Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 8, 2017. Reuters/Jim Bourg
Nils Gilman, American Interest: Wanted: A Self-Draining Swamp
Perhaps the most insidious threat facing Western democracies has been the progressive decline of elite accountability and responsibility.
When Christine Keeler died this past December 5 at age 75, a predictable welter of obituaries poured forth, most no doubt having been drafted in readiness decades ago when her fame was established. Central to that dubious fame was a series of lovers Keeler bedded 55 years ago, at age 19, including among others both Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché (and likely spy) in London and Baron John Profumo, the 46-year-old (and married) Conservative Secretary of State for War. This, it was averred, created a potential security risk.
Like all good scandals, this one burned slowly and climaxed dramatically. Profumo initially made a public denial to Parliament that he had engaged in any “impropriety,” threatening to sue for libel any newspapers that published rumors of the affair. But in a series of lurid twists and turns over the next two years, involving a high-class prostitution ring, lowlife beatings, some rare gunplay, and a high-profile suicide, the truth eventually dribbled out. Finally, Profumo was forced to admit the truth in June 1963.
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WNU Editor: If there is one thing that I have learned in the past few years is that the elites cannot be trusted to police themselves. They are always insulated and protected. Nils Gilman's analysis is spot on, and his post is a must read.
3 comments:
Self-draining swamp is on the shelf next to the self-eating cake.
Very good post, and on a crucial matter.
In Italy we have at least triple in numbers of scandals whit negated responsibility, even if not so big.
And in the face of the "meritocracy" (who's only a idea of the elite for the elite), in the last 20 years we have seen a fall on personal and system competence and decline of standards (except the food).
In a rare audition on public debt and the pay for nothing of billions of euros to foreign banksters for shitty finance and fall of banks, the main answer is that "Italy cannot give the markets the sign of not to pay". So we are trapped in a system that give power to trans-national institutions not democratic or elected by common people the political class has given the final responsibility of their failures. In other cases they rely on bureaucracy and long trial time to avoid consequences. Bunch of worms!
The final suggestions on how restoring personal responsibility and accountability in a democracy are good, and what we are in searching for: People control on elites.
YC,
Bingo!
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