In praise of little people

No-one will ever improve upon Matthew Parris's assessment of Alastair Campbell. But one service Campbell's done us is to remind us of Blair's contemptible grandiosity. Campbell writes:

TB said in the end, there are big people and little people...The big people do big things and the little people do little things. You [Campbell] are a big person.

But the thing is, it's the little people doing little things who matter. All the essentials of life come from the little people who clean the streets and make our food. The humblest binman has done more good for me in the last 10 years than Blair's managed. 
And it's little people who know more than Blair ever will. They know to co-operate with their fellow man, rather than seek dominion over him; Pol Pot, Hitler, Mao and Stalin were all big people.
They know that dreams are dreams and reality is reality, and only lunatics and fanatics impose the former onto the latter, for that would be to make government a mere instrument of passion.
They know that "success" goes not to the wise and virtuous, but to the ambitious and rapacious, and that power not only corrupts but enslaves. 
And they know, as Adam Smith did, that "wealth and greatness are mere trinkets of frivolous utility", that the paths of glory lead but to the grave, and that the true goods are those of excellence, not mere effectiveness.
And they know too that neither fame nor obscurity can disguise the fundamental equality between us. As a poet Gordon Brown is fond of citing wrote:

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness upon the desert air

But it's a flower for all that.  

Comments

[dearieme]

Our plesance here is all vain glory
This fals world is but transitory
The flesh is bruckle, the Feynd is slee
Timor mortis conturbat me.

William Dunbar, Lament for the Makars.

[dearieme]

While we're at it:
"We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns."

[Unity]

I still the the best riposte is to Blair's remarks is that of Col. Thomas Rainborough:

"I think the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he; and therefore truly, sir, I think it's clear that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government."

[Dipper]

Blimey Chris for a minute I thought you were going to give us Kipling's "If"

Spot on with the comments. The quote shows TB thinks government is something you do to the people, not for the people, and certainly not about enabling people to do things for themselves.

[Paulie]

Hippy

[Shuggy]

"We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns"

Like the Bud people say - True.

[Bob B]

Campbell's transparent skills have been rather misdirected in the course of his illustrious political career and I feel sure he could have served his country - and very likely the Labour Party too - far better if he had had the opportunity to build on the early talent he displayed for writing pornography. But then, as Tony Blair famously said of him: "I'd like to think I have hired the best in the business, I hope I have, of course."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/832210.stm

[Freddie Sirmans]

Just browsing the internet, very interesting blog

[Karthic]

Well done Chris.

[Workshy Fop]

Absolutley. Campbell would do well to remember that the main impact he has had on most people's lives is that he inspired 'The Thick of It', which provides more benefit than he ever did.

Normal people just don't think about Campbell that often - you'd have to be a real monomaniac to agree with the level of importance he ascribes to himself.

[chris strange]

Looks like Tony Blair had a thing for Nietzsche; "Trivial people suffer trivially, great men suffer greatly"

[Mike Artherton]

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