333 / Against The Current Trend

Paulo Coelho's book, The Winner Stands Alone, is kind of a soap opera. It contains this observation about politicians:

9:20 P.M.

Doctors look at test results which are completely at odds with what they believe the actual illness to be, and must then decide whether to trust science or their heart. They learn, with time and experience, to give more weight to their instincts and they find that the outcomes for their patients improve.

Successful businessmen pore over graphs and diagrams, then go completely against the market trend and grow still richer.

Artists write books or films about which everyone says: "That won't work. No one's interested in things like that," and end up becoming icons of popular culture ...

Only one group consistently fail to go against the current trend: politicians. They want to please everyone and stick rigidly to the rules of political correctness. They end up having to resign, apologize or contradict themselves.

This is our major gift: the ability to create new worlds. A politics that forgoes this ambition and opportunity is worthy of the dismissal and disregard so often accorded to "politicians."