Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Here’s a man who ‘willingly’ and ‘eagerly’ gave up power. He decided, after a walk in the snow, that his time to relinquish power had come. That’s unique, isn’t it?
Pierre Trudeau, Canada’s former prime minister, made some memorable statements. “Canada must be a just society” and, “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation”.
He sought periods of solitude. Who can forget his many canoe trips on the northern rivers of Canada’s wilderness? This is what he said about that …
For it is a condition of a [canoe] trip that you entrust yourself, stripped of your worldly goods, to nature. To remove all the useless material baggage from a man’s heritage is, at the same time, to free his mind from petty preoccupations, calculations and memories.
Kissinger equated power with the ultimate aphrodisiac. Past regimes have tried, as are current regimes worldwide, to cling to power no matter what the human cost. History was made with human blood … and the tradition continues.
What’s your take on “Power”?
Pierre Elliott Trudeau
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
Trudeau was most atypical. I can only think of a handful who ceded power gracefully. Even if the temptation is to seek power in order to accomplish good, the result is all to often that the Good becomes less important than the Power.
Retired Mainframe maven, active curmudgeon, poet, writer.
Baby Doc has returned to Haiti (shudder)
Canadian pundits to suggest to someone they’d like to see leave politics, to take a walk in the snow. Maybe Obama should pay heed and take that walk?
Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.
allowed him to move out of the political scene with ease which provided him with greater insight and a proper perspective.
Maybe all politicians should be required to take a few solitary canoe trips in the wilderness so that their desire for more power can be kept in check.
Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.
The BBC is reporting: It was not clear what prompted his return, but he said he wanted “to help the people of Haiti” following last year’s devastating earthquake.
Just what Haiti needs, more help.
One owes respect to the living. To the dead, one owes only the truth.