Politicians are the masters of spin. We see them on TV giving rousing orations full of sound and furry, we see them standing proudly at podiums in imposing, elegantly designed government buildings commanding the respect of generals, judges, reporters and everyone in attendance as they recite the words carefully crafted by teams of speech writers. This pageantry is designed to convince the public that they are honest, trustworthy and wise so that we will compliantly accept the latest tax increase, regulation or war. They are the personification of stately–a word which has its origins in the late 1300s and meant “noble, splendid,” in a sense of ”costlyand imposing display.”
The viral video of the day features Czech President Vaclav Klaus ”stealing” the ceremonial pen used to ink a new deal with Chile. The sticky fingered leader’s spokesman was quick to point out that his boss had a right to the pen based on international customs but that did nothing to curb people’s fascination with the footage.
This video amuses us because it offers a glimpse behind the meticulously crafted and usually impeccably maintained facade. In it we see the true nature of all politicians; they see something they want and when they think everyone is distracted, they take it and hide it under the table, out of sight as they pass it from hand to hand waiting to see if anyone notices. Then, they tuck it away in their pockets. In this video, the facade crumbles and we see something reminiscent of a school boy trying to lift a piece of candy from the teacher’s desk with all the grace and cunning of Wile E. Coyote. We like this video for the same reasons we are captivated by Charlie Sheen’s tailspin or whatever is the latest thing on E! News. This is the beauty of the market in the digital age; long gone are the days in which bureaucrats can control when, where and how they are seen. There will always be someone around with an iPhone or Droid or whatever, ready to record their every gaff and misdeed in brilliant 1080p HD and share it with the entire world in minutes.
{ 13 comments }
“As regards the first problem we can probably confidently say that its “hard version” – communism – is over. It is a great victory for us, but this victory should not demotivate us because the fall of communism does not automatically lead to a system we would like to have and live in. It is not a victory of ideas of classical (or European) liberalism. Fifteen years after the collapse of communism I am afraid, more than at the beginning of its softer (or weaker) version, of social-democratism, which has become – under different names, e.g. the welfare state or the soziale Marktwirtschaft – the dominant model of the economic and social system of current Western civilization. It is based on big and patronizing government, on extensive regulating of human behavior, and on large-scale income redistribution.”
http://www.klaus.cz/clanky/2171
The above speaks for itself. Also, from what I have understood, he didn’t actually steal the pen.
This pageantry is designed ? convince the public
they take it and hide it under the table, out of ?site? as they pass it from hand to hand
Lame post, Briggs. Read his wikipedia page — this guy doesn’t sound half bad. And it doesn’t appear at all that he “stole” the pen.
“His defining issue since 1990 has been a vocal enthusiasm for the free market economy as exemplified by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman.[59] According to Klaus, legislation and institutions cannot be created before economic transformation, they have to go hand in hand.[60]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Klaus
Even as a president what can you do, I wonder? I don’t know the importance of his party in parliament but I watched closely the other “austrian” European in power in a similar case of popular disavowing, that is the Secretary of State in Germany, Westerwelle: The political systems gave him much exposure and not so much possibilities (or media coverage) for moving things in the direction of “market independence”. Moreover his classic-liberal ideals relate not to the immediately felt satisfaction of citizens (tax cuts don’t favor everyone equally) but rather to the suppression of undue privileges… most Europeans are philosophically too much uneducated to really understand the difference between “raising the purchasing power of the masses” and “raising the wages” or “blocking the gasoline prices at the station”.
I wouldn’t go too hard on Vaclav Klaus. He is a big fan of free markets and Ludwig von Mises
Back in 2006 he invited Ron Paul to speak in Prague
here is video from that event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLoDMv4XsWw
However the sneaky way he took that pen makes me smile every time I watch that
I had a comment here and it is gone – what happened?
I posted a link about paper on Klaus and his influence that is posted here on mises, for anyone interested (hopefully this comment will remain):
mises.org/journals/jls/14_2/14_2_2.pdf
Paul, if your comment is gone, feel free to re-post it. The tech team has been doing some tweaks to make the blog load faster for people running older versions of IE. In doing so, a few recent blog posts and many comments were lost.
Ahh, that’s what happened. Thanks for posting.
I have been a fan of the Czech President for some time, but that was pretty amusing.
He is also a supporter of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene%C5%A1_decrees
Congratulations to all who think that “economical stance” (“oh he seems to be supporting free markets”) is more important than personal freedom (or both together).
Are you really that blind?
Benes decrees were result of the WW2 agreed upon on Potsdam conference. Klaus and many others in Czech politics do NOT consider Benes decrees just, as well as whole WW2 was in no sense just, but consider that revoking the decrees would cause more problems and suffering.
Similar is the situation of Nothern Ireland, sure all the english people ocuppied the irish land there few hundreds years ago. It would only be just to send them back to England. Or not?
How far in a history we should go? Why stop at WW2, why not go back to WW1 borders? Austrians sure would agree.
So a family that lost its property should just say: “Yeah, it’s alright, because THEY decided for us”?
Since when do collectivist decisions make the truth?
Collectivist decisions don’t make the truth, by definition. I did not argue anything like that. Benes decrees were wrong at the time. But it is believed that removing them would be equally wrong now. As you put it, so family says: “Yeah, it is alright, my grand-grandfather bought the abandoned (originaly german family) house after the war from the state and THEY revoke that law now so no problem, I pack and look for another one.”
The point is decrees were wrong 60 years ago, but removing them would be wrong now. This kind of things should not be done (war etc.) or should be fixed immediately. Three generations later it does not make much sense to me. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Comments on this entry are closed.