POLITICS AS A VOCCATION
“The honor of the civil servant is
vested in his ability to execute conscientiously the order of the superior
authorities, exactly as if the order agreed with his own conviction. This holds
even if the order appears wrong to him and if, despite the civil servant’s
remonstrances, the authority insists on the order. Without this moral discipline
and self-denial, in the highest sense, the whole apparatus would fall to
pieces. The honor of the political leader, of the leading statesman, however,
lies precisely in an exclusive personal responsibility for what he does, a
responsibility he cannot and must not reject or transfer. It is in the nature
of officials of high moral standing to be poor politicians, and above all, in
the political sense of the word, to be irresponsible politicians (p. 95).”
INTERPRETATION
This quote from the passage is explaining
to us how the civil servants served their masters or those in command without
question their authority. Whatever it is they were ask to do they did it diligently
and with honor and respect. Max Weber in this passage, related to their moral instincts
in conducting their duties to their superiors. No matter how bad the duties to
be performed are, they still did it because they wanted to satisfy the needs of
their masters. Politicians’ never care of what they do, if it is going to let them
gain more power and control, then it is ok and such duties must be executed at
the expense of other people.
I chose this quote because, looking at
our political world today, most of these things are happening where politicians
use the power they have to boss and control the civilians around and have them
do things for them that is against their moral conscience. These are seen a lot
where people are ordered to steal and even kill because they need to maintain
their position and have more power. Attitudes of this nature has come to stay
and this is destroying our political system because it is hard for people who
are in power today to serve the country for why they were appointed, rather
they come in to fulfill their selfish interest at the expense of their
followers.
Every government is guilty for this kind of behavior which is the abuse of their power. The main organization they all take advantage of is the military. They use soldiers whom are expendable to accomplish goals for their country, and/or personal interest. The loss of lives in the military is inevitable, but the way people are used as a statistic rather than a person is sickening to me, which is how all politicians treat their armed forces. However, these kinds of sacrifices are sometimes necessary to protect and serve one's country.
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