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.
识别蠢人有一个简便方法，因为他们总会说“政客，哼！天下乌鸦一般黑”之类的话。从我记事起，听到过这句话的各种不同版本。不过自2008年以来，这几乎成了普遍的情绪。前几天，一个以“知识分子”自居的巴黎人对我说：“我们的政治阶层都很平庸。”民选政治人物的声望，已经跌到了20世纪30年代以来的最低水平。原因显而易见：经过伊拉克战争和manbetx app苹果 金融危机之后，现在我们发现连欧元都是一个糟糕透顶的主意——而欧元正是欧洲政治阶层的智力结晶。