“I
can feel your pain!” said President Clinton on some memorable occasion,
making this short sentence a political classic for all time. Rascal, he lied
again. Touted as one of the best politicians who ever walked the earth, he is
not supposed to have any feelings whatsoever, especially for other
people’s pain.
Rest
assured that I am not about to embark on a crusade against hypocrisy. The
choice of flagship does not necessarily determine the destination. As a matter
of fact, I have two related subjects to discuss here, and, to be sure, neither
has much bearing on hypocrisy as such.
My
first subject is compassion. This is what “feeling the other’s pain”
means. Compassion is a destructive feeling, which not only echoes the pain, but
multiplies it within you, making it unbearable... I have known compassion, and
I know only too well what I am talking about.
No
politician can afford to be compassionate, and this is not a matter of
hypocrisy, but of the person’s true nature. A statesman has to be
completely immune to the pain of compassion, otherwise, all his statesmanly
talents and outstanding skills notwithstanding, the pain will cloud his
judgment, next, a woman’s tears will deprive him of one altogether, and he is
going fast, all the way down, becoming largely ineffective, an object of
contemptuous pity, rather than of admiration.
Yes,
unlike in other people, in whom compassion is a virtue, in a statesman, it is
counted as a weakness and a fatal flaw. He must be, of necessity, a
cold-blooded animal…
My second, related, subject is myself. In
Russia, I frequently discussed my future with my powerful friends and mentors,
and the talk of entering politics was always a major subject of discussion.
Some very practical steps were taken to get me elected to the Soviet
Parliament. Ambassadorship to the United States and eventually the post of
Foreign Minister (!), were also realistically discussed.
I
guess, my mentors did not understand my nature, or else, they were talking in
vacuously abstract terms. I have always been a person consumed by compassion
for others. I would have made a very bad statesman! I am happy that I did not
play along with my mentors’ vain desires, and scuttled all those political plans about
me.
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