5th Century BC Cynicism About Politics

by Karl Kurtz

Cynicism about politicians is an ancient art form according to Bill Purcell, director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics.  Speaking to an audience of several hundred legislative staff at NCSL's Legislative Summit last week in Philadelphia, the former majority leader of the Tennessee House and mayor of Nashville quoted Aristophanes as saying in 424 BC, "You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner."  And in 410 BC: "Under every stone lurks a politician."

I'll find a way to use those quotes from 2,500 years ago in a report that I am writing on public attitudes toward democratic institutions in the 21st century.

In a clever, entertaining and thoughtful speech, Purcell also shared this amusing description of legislative decorum in the 1950s by Georgia Gov. Marvin Griffin, "It's like three truckloads of bean pickers in a field without a foreman."  The quote appears in Zell by Richard Hyatt.

Comments

[Lurker]

The second one is a questionable translation at best. A more accurate one is "Under every stone lurks an orator", which is still a quote out of the full context: "We must look under every stone, lest they hide an orator who will sting us", which was a take off on a common saying about a scorpion hiding under a stone.

See, EG. http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/thesmoph.pl.txt for the translation.