WATCHMEN

Since the time of the ancient greek the concept of “Who watches the watchmen?” has been in use. And the concept has never been more needed than just now.

Juvenal is credited with initially using the phrase “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” - literally “who guards the guards themselves”. Ever since the phrase has constantly been re-used to highlight the core moral problem with people placing themselves under the rule or moral authority of another group - as who will morally rule those who watch over the morality of everyone else. In recent terms the movie ‘Frost Vs Nixon’ explored the concept:

David Frost: Are you really saying the President can do something illegal?
Richard Nixon: I’m saying that when the President does it, that means it’s *not* illegal!

The morality of those who have to govern is always under question - and always should be. And in many socieities those who govern watch themselves - and the watching is generally lax and pretty awful. Think of Tory MPs paying their sons for imaginary work, MPs claiming 1st and 2nd home allowances, bankers destroying national economies and then wanting bonus payments as a reward for their greed, churches talking about morality whilst priests abuse children, etc, etc.

The point is that today no one is watching the watchmen. Society gives up so much to the elected/unelected leaders in many spheres and has no way to really hold them to account. 

I guess what we need is a moral politican but following the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the chances of this are minimal. Even Obama for all his posturing is likely to fall back to the usual position of protectionism.