Equality by lot

WWI: Even if the analysis below can be disputed or disproved, it illustrates the common sort of situation where, when “the ruler’s imperative”—political survival—is threatened, it will take precedence over the common good.

I reminded my friends of the formidable domestic difficulties which the British regime was facing in 1914, and how [they] made it politically impracticable for it to declare its intentions until after the first gun had been fired.

[“Its intentions”—i.e., to declare war if Germany invaded Belgium; the Germans believed that Britain’s pre-war statements in support of Belgian neutrality were merely pro forma waffle. The Germans were amazed and felt betrayed when Britain entered the war. They thought they should have been clearly warned if Britain had really intended to do this.]

These difficulties were: the impending consolidation of labour into One Big Union; the pressure for home rule in Scotland and Wales, as well as for Ireland; and the pressure for land-value taxation. All these matters were due to come to a head simultaneously in the summer of 1914.

If in July 1914 Sir Edward Grey had served Prince Lichnowsky with a firm notice of the regime’s intentions, it is a hundred to one that the war would have been considerably deferred; but England would have been split up by convulsions far worse than those of the eighteen-forties, and the Liberal regime would be tossed to the dogs. —A.J. Nock, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, 1943, p. 248.

WWII:

The right time to resist injustice is at the beginning. … Hitler’s March into the Rhineland [in 1936] gave Britain and France the perfect occasion for a war …. —C.N. Parkinson, Left Luggage, 1965, 110

In addition, Chamberlain was secretly informed by a cabal of German generals that they would arrest Hitler if Britain said it would fight Germany if it invaded Czechoslovakia (1938), but gormless Chamberlain ducked the opportunity to be firm in time, as Asquith had before him. (“War solves nothing,” he liked to say. It would have solved the Hitler problem, you drip.)

Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. —Henry Adams.

There is a tide in the affairs of men—which no politician ever takes. —Aldous Huxley.

The completeness of parliament’s failure is something of which people need to be reminded. … We were brought to the brink of extermination by politicians who desired popularity. [This] is the system in which we apparently believe. —C.N. Parkinson, Left Luggage, 1965, p. 112.

“Monarchy and Aristocracy have failed,” democrats say, “it remains to try Democracy.” … When the failure comes to be analyzed we find ourselves driven to the further conclusion that Democracy has also failed. —C.N. Parkinson, The Evolution of Political Thought, 1958, 1963, p. 35.

Third, here are excerpts from two Amazon reviewer comments on The Blunders of Our Governments (2013) by Anthony King and Ivor Crewe:

This book presents a superb academic analysis of over a dozen major government blunders that have occurred in the past 30 years. … It is striking how feebly these policies were opposed (or even scrutinised) by Parliament and how rarely the ministers who were responsible apologised, resigned, were sacked or, indeed, paid any price, political or otherwise, for their decisions. … King and Crewe argue that such horror stories are `exceedingly numerous’ – they actually use the word `incessant’ – and that, though each has cost the taxpayer many millions (sometimes billions) of pounds, they were avoidable. … The study inevitably throws up numerous examples of ministerial stupidity yet the authors view the causes as systemic ….

Perhaps the book’s most important message is subliminal, and never actually stated by the authors. Despite their public commitment to serving their country, most politicians are incredibly hubristic; far from being interested in their constituents they represent, they are more concerned with their own careers – whether it be advancing up the political ladder, or being remembered for posterity. … Most government ministers suffer from a “cultural disconnect” with the people they purport to govern ….

Moreover:

… as the actions of government affect the lives of more people in more ways, the cost of governmeental ignorance and misinformation is sure to rise. — Richard Rose. People in Politics, 1970, p. 142.

The state is so interested in maintaining its position, increasing its prerogatives and services, and increasing its budget, that it loses sight of its true function and degenerates into autocracy. —Proudhon, Selected Writings, p. 110.

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