The latest fall from grace of one of our local politicians is a case study of the old maxim: Be Nice to People on Your Way Up. You’ll Meet Them On Your Way Down.
It turns out that if you make a career out of attacking people and being unnecessarily combative, then there is no shortage of people lining up to kick you when you are down, many of them former colleagues from your old party.
When I first got involved with Slugger, I found the play the ball, not the man/woman rule, quite restrictive. After all it is very tempting to put the boot into whatever hapless local politician has messed up. But over time, I learned to embrace it, not only when writing on Slugger but in life generally.
You have a certain amount of anonymity online, and it could be very easy to be a complete dick to people. But this can soon come back to haunt you; just ask Pastor Jimberoo.
A sensible politician knows there is no point in making enemies of people. There are numerous cases of local politicians surviving scandals because they are decent spuds who just made a mistake. A bit of humility and holding your hands up goes a long way with the media and voters.
I was interested to find out that the Bible does not say that you reap what you sow. The Bible quote is Hosea 8:7, “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”
Something to remember the next time you are tempted to lash out.
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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