The show of our politics today often depicts a vision of public affairs management, both at central and local level, that for many elected or appointed representatives can be ascribed to one of the three following situations.
Some people struggle to deny the evidence, because it does not respond to their benefit and wishes, and this situation can be also found in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in the passage when Juliet does not want the morning to come.
Romeo knows that he will be killed if he is seen by the family at Juliet’s, where he spent the night, and wants to leave, while Juliet tries to withhold him, though knowing that dawn is breaking.
Juliet: Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day. It was the nightingale, and not the lark, that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear. Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Romeo: It was the lark, the herald of the morn, no nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
do lace the severing clouds in yonder east. Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Juliet: Yon light is not daylight, I know it, I.
The second case is sadly typical of those who do not understand what is happening, and can be exemplified by the little story below.
The recruiter to a candidate: “The result of this interview is obvious: you are a person of appalling intellectual mediocrity, your education is vastly below expectations, and you lack motivation”.
“Don’t hold me in suspense, then, am I hired or not?”
The third can be best described by the famous quote from the late former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, : "You sin in thinking bad about people – but, often, you guess right".
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