Politics
Politics is the art of managing a nation’s affairs in ways that please God and people. As long as a government protects people from evil through its power and defends them from oppression through its justice, it can be considered successful in politics and full of promise. If a government does not do so, it can no longer remain in power, leaving behind turmoil amidst the protests.
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Good administration and politics are characterized by acknowledging rights, the rule of law, and consciousness of individual responsibility. Also placing responsible people in crude/difficult jobs and skilled and experienced people in refined/delicate jobs is essential.
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Rather than a government’s saying “My nation,” it’s more important that the nation says “My government.” If the nation sees the government as a host of parasites, it means that the body has long since broken off from the head.
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Government means justice and public order. We cannot speak of government where these do not exist. A government being likened to a mill, the floor it produces consists in order, peace and security. Any mill which does not produce this floor produces only roar, and grinds air.
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If the officials running a good and virtuous state are chosen because of their nobility in spirit, ideas, and feelings, and their merit and proficiency, the state will be good and strong. A government run by officials who lack these high qualities is still a government, but it is neither good nor long-lasting. Sooner or later, its officials’ bad behavior will appear as dark spots on its face and blacken it in the people’s eyes.
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Public officials should be kind, follow the law, and have soft hearts. These characteristics will protect their esteem and honor and those of the law and the state. Remember that extreme harshness causes unexpected explosions, and extreme softness causes the rapid breeding of harmful, unfounded ideas and movements in the community.
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Laws should be effective all the time, everywhere, and for everyone. Those who enforce them should be brave and just so that the masses will have some fear of them, but not to the extent that they no longer lose their trust in or feel secure under the law’s enforcers.
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Governors should be compassionate, sensitive, and aware of their responsibilities; and mayors should realize orderliness, cleanness, and security in dealings. It is justice, devotion of right, and moral courage that are expected of judges.
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Magnificent nations produce magnificent governments. It is the generations with high spirituality, scientific advancement, financial opportunities, broad consciousness, and the individuals struggling to be “themselves,” that form magnificent nations.
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It is not possible to show another dynamics as powerful as religion in realizing public peace and order. For in addition to being the most effective power in consciences, religion is the greatest authority in disciplining the acts of individuals. Religion is the life of the national life. Therefore, it should always be kept alive in the public conscience and view.
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Unity of feeling, thought, and culture are essential to a nation’s strength; any disintegration of religious and moral unity weakens it.
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There is a policy for everything. The policy for renewing a nation is to ignore your own pleasure, to feel joy only with the nation’s pleasures, and to feel sorrow only with its pain.
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Mature people never make difference of opinion a means of conflict. However, no one has the right to tolerate those views that separate people into camps and destroy society. Tolerance of division means tolerance of the nation’s extinction.
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People who do not think like you might be very sincere and beneficial, so do not oppose every idea that seems contradictory and scare them off. Seek ways to benefit from their opinions, and strike up a dialogue with them. Otherwise, those who are kept at a distance and led to dissatisfaction because they do not think like us will form huge masses that confront and smash us. Even if such dissatisfied people have never achieved anything positive, the number of states they have destroyed is beyond counting.
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People must learn how to benefit from other people’s knowledge and views which will be beneficial to their own system, thought, and world. Especially, they should never neglect benefiting from the experiences of the experienced.
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Those who understand politics as political parties, propaganda, elections, and the struggle for power are mistaken. Politics is the art of management, based on a broad perspective of today, tomorrow, and the day after, by seeking people’s satisfaction and God’s approval and good pleasure.
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Power’s dominance is transitory; while truth’s and justice’s dominance is eternal. Even if these do not exist today, they will be victorious in the very near future. For this reason, sincere politicians should align themselves and their policies with truth and justice.
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The past is a school full of the scenes of example and instruction brought about by life. Those who study and employ this school properly with its courses and lessons can be successful in the future. For today is the same as yesterday, and yesterday as the day before yesterday. It is only the colors that change.
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