Dear Friends,
It seems to me, human beings are social, and social interactions are political, therefore political favor effects all human interactions. Political favor is the privilege that people give to a person, group or organization. It can be derived from popularity, power or position. Political favor exists not only in elections, but in bureaucracies, corporations and courts. Once you realize everything the state does, including the passing and enforcing of law, depends on political favor, everything government does, snaps into focus. That’s why gathering political favor is the primary job of a politician, a lawyer without political favor can’t win cases, and why a corporation is better off spending profits on lobbying than innovation. Political favor is the hidden force behind all human interaction.
One of the reasons we use lawyers is to lease their political favor for our benefit in court. A poor person has no political favor, and a poor person with a state provided attorney has no political favor in their lawyer either, so they are guaranteed to be found guilty. A defendant who the citizenry hates, has negative political favor and so can’t get a fair trial, bench or by jury… no matter the political favor of their lawyer. A defendants negative political favor can diminish their attorney’s political favor. In all cases, even where the law is clear, political favor always trumps law in court. That’s the reason we have the saying, “Railroaded…” Because the railroads had so much political favor in the nineteenth century, they couldn’t lose in court, no matter how absurd the ruling. We see it today in a myriad of cases.
Political favor affects your work environment. Hard work is one way to garner political favor, another is to suck up to the boss. Hard work alone however, even of top quality isn’t enough, if your coworkers undermine you. Like a barrel of monkeys, the one trying to climb out will get pulled back in, by the others. Meanwhile, the worthless monkey is helped out, because he or she is liked. Buying and selling is effected by one’s political favor. Remember the Seinfeld episode about the “John Voight car?” It was all about the political favor, that rubbed off on the car, because it had been owned by someone with political favor. Which means, theoretically, that John Voight would have received more money for the same car… than you or I. Because of his popularity derived political favor.
Government is where political favor really shines. A politician or bureaucrat with political favor can perjure themselves before congress, all day long, and the DOJ wouldn’t consider bringing charges. The definition of riot depends, not on the actions of the participants, but the political favor of the group they belong to. The politically favored even get better treatment from the bureaucracy. Do you think any bureaucrat would deny Barak Obama a permit to build a cabana on his property? You or I, on the other hand, might have to jump through a few hoops, pay a fine, and even then, just not get the permit. Because it requires a variance, and a variance can only be granted by the variance board, that only meets once a quarter, and they just met.
Political favor effects every aspect of life because politics comes into play in every aspect of life. We’re social animals, so society is based on politics, and lubricated by courtesy. Therefore, affected by political favor. Socrates was executed, not for any crime, but due to a lack of political favor. I don’t like it, but you have to admit reality, even if it isn’t to your liking. Now that we’ve loosely defined political favor, how will we react? Gather all the political favor we can, like the elite, and use it to get away with molesting kids? Maybe we could try to change mankind’s nature, like Marxists, to suit our preference? Perhaps instead, we could add the knowledge to our understanding, then apply it when viewing events. To better understand, and put them in context, so we can act in our own self interest.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
