WHY YES, NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT, POLITICS IS A LITTLE LIKE RULING OVER THE DEAD:
"and if in that time there were among them any honors, praises, and prizes for the man who is sharpest at making things out as they go by, and most remembers which of them are accustomed to pass before, which after, and which at the same time as others, and who thereby is most able to divine what is going to come, in your opinion would he be desirous of them and envy those who are honored and hold power among these men? Or, rather, would he be affected as Homer says and want very much 'to be on the soil, a serf to another man, to a portionless man,' and to undergo anything whatsoever rather than opine those things and live that way?'
'Yes,' he said, 'I suppose he would prefer to undergo everything rather than live this way.'"
-Plato, Republic VII 516d
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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