"Hrarrroom!
"Ambassador o SouthWoods feels that it is time I took the lead on introducing a proposal, for gaining experience, and told me to do so with 'that old St Edmundan one about encouraging democracy', so I looked through the files and apparently he meant this one ... So here it is..."
She sips from a glass of water -- at least, I think that its contents are only water -- while she waits for people to finish reading those hand-outs...
Pride and Prejudice
Category: Furtherment of Democracy
Strength: Mild
Proposed by: Bears Armed Mission
Description: It is a truth (almost) universally acknowledged that a government which has been in firm possession of its nation for quite a while is most in need of honest criticism, and of the humility with which to listen to this…
Therefore the World Assembly,
RECOGNISING that even in democracies the tenure of public office, especially if prolonged and without credible opposition, may help lead not only national and sub-national leaders but lesser politicians and subordinate officials too into a belief that they are naturally superior to their nations’ other inhabitants, and to think that their own views are not just the only ones they need to consider but the only ones that might even be worth considering at all;
RECOGNISING that national or sub-national leaders, lesser politicians, and subordinate officials, might sometimes allow such a belief to lead them into arrogant actions, and/or into the passage of badly-thought-out legislation, to the detriment of their nations’ other inhabitants,
RECOGNISING also that some national or sub-national leaders, lesser politicians, and subordinate officials, especially if confident of retaining power, might allow their policies and actions to be influenced by prejudice either towards or against various elements of their nations’ populations,
BELIEVING that if national or sub-national leaders, lesser politicians, or subordinate officials, give in to Pride and Prejudice in these ways then they are unlikely to govern those nations in the best interests of the overall populations therein;
1. REMINDS all national leaders, lesser politicians and subordinate officials, that no matter how long and how firmly they may have held those positions, or for how much longer they might reasonably expect to retain them, it is highly unlikely (unless they have very unusual metabolisms indeed…) that the Sun actually shines forth from any portions of their anatomies;
2. STRONGLY URGES all national and sub-national leaders, lesser politicians, and subordinate officials, to listen seriously to honest criticism and constructive advice, and to take this in the spirit in which it is meant, instead of just ignoring, belittling or even punishing, the sources of that criticism and advice;
3. STRONGLY URGES national and sub-national leaders, lesser politicians, and subordinate officials, to act consistently in the best interests of the people within their jurisdictions as a whole, without letting prejudice either towards or against any elements of those populations influence the ways in which they perform their official responsibilities.
"Hwell, what do you think of it?"
