A handy way of spotting stupid people is that they say things like, “Politicians! They’re all as bad as each other.” I’ve heard versions of this phrase all my sentient life. But since 2008 the sentiment has become almost universal. “Our political class is entirely mediocre,” as a faux-intellectual Parisian told me the other day. The standing of elected politicians is at its lowest since the 1930s. You can see why: after the Iraq war and the global financial crisis, it now turns out that the euro (brainchild of Europe’s political class) was a ghastly idea.
識別蠢人有一個簡便方法，因為他們總會說“政客，哼！天下烏鴉一般黑”之類的話。從我記事起，聽到過這句話的各種不同版本。不過自2008年以來，這幾乎成了普遍的情緒。前幾天，一個以“知識分子”自居的巴黎人對我說：“我們的政治階層都很平庸?！泵襁x政治人物的聲望，已經(jīng)跌到了20世紀30年代以來的最低水平。原因顯而易見：經(jīng)過伊拉克戰(zhàn)爭和全球金融危機之后，現(xiàn)在我們發(fā)現(xiàn)連歐元都是一個糟糕透頂?shù)闹饕狻鴼W元正是歐洲政治階層的智力結(jié)晶。