William Blum Quote on Political Leadership and Cruelty

„Our leaders are cruel because only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment. People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or national security adviser or secretary of the treasury. Nor do they want to.“

William BlumWilliam Blum criticizes that only cruel leaders can attain leadership roles in foreign policy.
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William Blum was an American author and critic of United States foreign policy.

A critical examination of the qualities of political leaders in the context of foreign policy.


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William Blum quote about political leadership, cruelty, and compassion

William Blum (1933–2018) initially worked for the U.S. State Department, which he left in 1967 because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He later became a writer and co-founded the underground newspaper Washington Free Press. He was particularly known for his critical research into CIA covert operations and U.S. foreign policy.

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"The men of the higher circles are not representative men; their high position is not a result of moral virtue; their fabulous success is not firmly connected with meritorious ability. Those who sit in the seats of the high and the mighty are selected and formed by the means of power, the sources of wealth, the mechanics of celebrity, which prevail in their society. They are not men selected and formed by a civil service that is linked with the world of knowledge and sensibility. They are not men shaped by nationally responsible parties that debate openly and clearly the issues this nation now so unintelligently confronts. They are not men held in responsible check by a plurality of voluntary associations which connect debating publics with the pinnacles of decision. Commanders of power unequaled in human history, they have succeeded within the American system of organized irresponsibility." Charles Wright Mills
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