It is a week argument, I freely concede. But it is a good point, don’t you think? Anyhow, it remains how I feel about everything, even though I freely admit, too, that politics is a depressing topic.
At any rate, it becomes a depressing topic when people begin to think that there is no moral fiber in politics. No, nothing, not an ounce of it.
Well then, why don’t leave the subject and talk about something more uplifting, by returning to linguistics. Let me say a few words more about moral fiber, the phrase.
Fiber, or fibre in British spelling, is the thin thread-like thing we see in vegetables. Fibers are hard to chew but they are what make vegetables and trees stand up, tall and strong. Similarly we talk of muscle fiber or fiber glass. It’s the fiber that makes muscle and glass strong.
Figuratively speaking, therefore whenever we say someone has moral fiber, we mean to say that they have strength of character, that they have a strong sense of right and wrong, that they are expected to do the right thing no matter the circumstances.
Conversely if someone has no moral fiber, we cannot expect him to do the right thing. Among politicians, those with low moral fiber are, for example, railway officials who receive hundreds of millions of yuan in kickbacks in handing out high-speed rail projects.
Again, I’m not naming names because I don’t need bad names to make a good point. I’m just saying, in normal circumstances they might be nice and regular people. But when the stakes are high, they cannot help but to help themselves, i.e. they do not have the emotional strength to resist the temptations. Hence these people have low or no moral fiber.
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