AT THE marble entrance to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States is a bold inscription: "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." On the mosaic floor of the entrance hall of the Victorian Parliament in Melbourne is a circular inscription you need to walk around to read: "Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety."
Both are from that hold-all of moral and political advice, the Bible. The CIA inscription is a smart version of John 8:32. The Melbourne inscription comes from Proverbs 11:14. Both inscriptions are political aphorisms paraded as self-evident truths. In real life neither is useful on its own. Conviction gives energy to politics, which would otherwise be a compromise between contending interests, but can lead to arrogance. Consultation is a check on hubris but also an invitation to inaction. Managing a healthy political system, especially a democracy, means finding a way between them, between moral clarity and tolerance, truth and reality, risk and safety. Policy and process go hand in hand, writes Bruce Grant.
Age 2 Jan 2008
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