It is easy to say in general that we need a good government and good people in office. But when it gets down to the wire, the word good has to become specific. Having what are called goods or prosperity can go both ways. A person who is poor might be so due to a lack of diligence and self control and yet we see that wealth can ruin people also by the same lack of personal discipline. We can be just as anxious about lack regardless where we are in comparison to others. The cause of good in people’s lives has to do with something other than what they possess materially.

Plato gave hypotheticals in a dialogue form in his book Laws. The Athenian and others agreed that education needed to start when children are very young so they can learn how to value the use of self discipline and reward as early as possible. He presented the illustration of a person’s passions resembling a puppet in need of a master to pull the right strings. The correct string is considered golden. And students should be taught to reach for this one against all others. This must be where we get the Golden Rule. It is probably where we get the saying, “I will try to pull some strings to get it done”. Picture a marionette with a puppeteer.

The point in all of this is that a person who is good at doing what is right is the best person to have as a citizen. This is the highest calling of an educational system. Integrity is a product of a person’s youth and is very hard to change afterward. I just had training at work where they claimed that our personality is fully formed around ten years old. After that, we can make adjustments, but still relate to things like that kid.

I am not sure how firm the psychology is, but according to the aforementioned dialogue, a person who doesn’t know how to obey is a bad choice for a leader. The golden strings in politics is the law the people have put in place. A person who wants to be in authority is obligated to uphold and obey them. Electing a person who hasn’t perfected this is like having an unruly child in office. In the dialogue he likened a child’s behavior to that of a drunk adult. A drunk person loses the ability to discern things rationally and acts the same way a child would by acting on passions without thought. Along the same lines, when personal agenda (passions) come before obedience to the law of the land (the golden strings) a person is drunk with power. Like a child, they will make poor decisions and present all kinds of excuses to justify their behavior, usually through blaming others. The main virtue to look for in a good politician is the fortitude to follow  rules the citizens of that country have put in place.