Summary: an evolving list

Ambrose Bierce defined politics in his Devil’s Dictionary as “The conduct of public affairs for private advantage”.

As Trump, Netanyahu and Putin continue to use this as their platonic ideal, here are a few more commonly used terms to better understand this brand of politics in the 21st Century.

Accountability — A principle once thought central to democracy, now regarded as the bad manners of social inferiors.

Betrayal — The dispatch of Caesar by his own signature methods.

Consolation — The knowledge that nits become lice.

Context — The reason a “tragic mistake” was all the enemy’s fault.

Decency — An elusive quality discovered in Caesar only after the knives have safely done their work.

Empathy — An existential threat arising from the dastardly impulses of fellow feeling and compassion.

Gullibility — A touching belief in the stories told by plutocrats.

Hypocrisy — The art of applying opposite principles with identical conviction.

Human moment — A politician’s self-pity.

Human rights — Rights universally acknowledged until someone inconvenient claims them.

Investigation — A process for discovering that a “tragic mistake” was unavoidable.

Realpolitik — A posh name for complicity in atrocities

Responsibility — An elusive quality, once thought central to professionalism, now applied only to those without sufficient privilege.

Rule of Law — An antiquated idea, dating back to Aristotle and Sophocles’ play about that loser Oedipus, that even important people should be accountable.

Self-defence — Violence committed by ourselves.

Special relationship — How vassals describe their vassalage.

Terrorism — Violence committed by the enemy.

Tragic mistake — Violence committed by ourselves against civilians after we got caught.

Wealth — The safest substitute for wisdom and expertise in policy discussions.

Wisdom — The consolation losers derive from losing. Of obsolete utility because of wealth.