March 1, 2025

…considering the imbecility of human judgment and the difficulty of choice in new and doubtful things…it is much easier and pleasanter to follow than to guide [others].

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533–1592), French philosopher and essayist, Essays, I, 42, “Of the Inequality Amongst Us”

And so the need for politicians, those who are tasked with guiding the followers.

Perhaps Andrew Bonar Law* expressed the politician’s quandary best: “I must follow the people, I am their leader”. *The Canadian-born prime minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923.