Politicians also have to free themselves from ignorance, aversion, greed

The Republic (etymologically: the public thing) is founded on the values of liberty, fraternity and equality. In a democracy, its political leaders are in charge of making citizens live in peace with each other, in respect of each other, in fraternity, in a mutually recognized equality and in a freedom that stops where the other’s begins.

The world is changing, and these values must constantly be brought to life in new contexts, taking into account new constraints in a new world order. Politicians must therefore enforce laws and create new ones; they are of course expected to follow them themselves and set an example – that is what they are elected to do. If we look around at the dishonesty, the cheating, the lawsuits that revolve around breach of trust and conflict of interest – and that go all the way to blood crimes – we can understand that politicians cannot do everything.

Here again, we can see that politicians entrusted with the noble task of being at the service of society can be – unwittingly for some, consciously for others – manipulated by greed, by aversion and by ignorance.

In a word, no one, if they are not careful, can escape the influence of the three poisons. Therefore, we cannot ask an external power, be it “divine” or political, to solve our karmic, intimate problems for us.