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WHY DO POWERFUL PUBLIC SERVANTS PREVARICATE?
In the summer of 2025, I find myself grieving far too many violations of public trust. Specifically over the lifetime of me(1959ff), my parents(1925ff) my grandparents(1900’s ff), its seems to be a persistent affliction of US Presidents, their families, and their staff members.
It typically involves their interpersonal relationships, their health, and the fourth estate — far too consistently complicit, apparently. Unfortunately for the particular job in question, their Oscar-worthy performances have demonstrably increasingly dire consequences for “we the people, united to form a more perfect union”. Here, I want to add an important nuance — in every case, Capitalist oligarchs, plutocrats, and in our Nuclear-Cold(HOT) War era, technocrats — consistently profit. This nuance unfortunately involves rewarding really bad and risky behaviors. As any k-12 teacher will tell you — REWARDING BEHAVIOR, ‘good’ or ‘bad’, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, yep- until death do us part- VIRTUALLY GUARANTEES REPETITION OF THE BEHAVIOR REWARDED.
Now, if their “worlds” had been my classroom, one of the consequences would have been immediate post-mortem interrogation as follows:
Why did you choose to lie?
Were others complicit in the lie(s)? If so, Why/ how?