Week 13 post 2

  Should there be a limitation to the pursuit of power? This is one of the biggest critiques of political ethics. Politics takes place in a free for all world, where each individual, each nation, pursues power in their own self interest. Each category whether it is individual or collective feels a sense of moral superiority, and each feels the need to claim their power over the world. In this case how are politicians supposed to be effective, particularly in international relations, if they are bound to rules that constrain this pursuit? In America, white men feel they have found freedom in their oppression of other people, and capitalism and thus project that in their pursuit of power, whereas many Scandinavian countries find their moral superiority in their social justice accountability. Each feels a sense of superiority that is so different, and so if all is fair game, there should be no limitations to their extensions of power; At least in theory they should not. 

    The truth is that one is more ethical than the other, and if we are to live in a cohesive, forward moving society, there must be accountability the ethics of politics. It is very easy to say that politicians need full range of control to maximize growth of power, but that is not what politics should be about. When society boils down its purpose to power, it loses a great deal of meaning, and typically the quality of life reduces. Politics needs to be about people, it needs to be global, and it needs to lose its polarization, at least a little bit. It needs this because as society focuses on power as it always does, it falls apart eventually. When it becomes about power lying, manipulation, and deceit all become a part of societies that “denounce” those morals. If we are to have individual morals, we need collective morals, and that is why we need political ethics. There needs to be a limitation to the pursuit of power, because this world is about people, no matter the differences.