December 12, 2025

In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to the level of incompetence…in time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his [new] duties…Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990), Canadian educator, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong (1969), in The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p.166

In getting yourself elected, have you reached your level of incompetence, at long last? Or is elected office intended as the escape route from your having already reached that level in your previous life? These questions are rude, I agree, but they must be considered.

At all times, the halls of government are populated by escapees from the real world, who despite the dearth of any qualities that marked them out for a political career—save ambition, are unconsciously hoping to justify the space they take up on this planet by a bout of public service.