Pertinent observations from Adam Chmielewski and Denis Dutton on the Polish Tragedy:
Polish politicians, as do those in most democratic countries, live in mortal fear of the media and the opposition. For years some of them have mumbled about the necessity of upgrading the government’s air-fleet; but no decision was made, for fear of the response that state officials wish to enjoy the luxuries of new planes at the expense of impoverished taxpayers. Yet leading figures across the political spectrum had no qualms about spending over $1 billion to buy
forty-eight F-16 fighter-planes on the grounds that this purchase would be seen as a proof of their concern for Polish security - planes which, for all their sophistication, are mostly grounded in Poland and largely useless. They did not dare to spend a fraction of this sum to secure the safe transport of the government itself.
I'm just wondering how right Chmielewsky and Dutton are that Polish pols fear the media and the opposition too much to upgrade and modernize their means of transports. If they are whether this is just particular to eastern European countries and former communist countries or to as they suggest true in all modern democracies. I would agree with the latter point if the argument is that the fact that modern democracies have become one where polls and public opinion are everything thus making the media very powerful means that it is increasingly difficult for politicians who are both talented and ambitious to do what is in the best interest of the country if that means becoming unpopular and unelectable.
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