The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

some part of it, should be, and they feel, sometimes
rightly, sometimes wrongly, that in realising their
vision they will be conferring a boon upon
mankind or some section of it. They do not,
however, adequately realise that the individuals
affected by their operations have each an equal
right to his own view as to the sort of world he
wants. A man of the executive type is quite sure
that his vision is right, and that any contrary one is
wrong. But his subjective certainly affords no
proof that he is objectively right. Moreover, his
belief is very often only a camouflage for the
pleasure that he derives from contemplating
changes of which he is the cause. And in addition
to love of power there is another motive, namely
vanity, which operates strongly in such cases. The
high-minded idealist who stands for Parliament -
on this matter I speak from experience - is
astonished by the cynicism of the electorate which
assumes that he only desires the glory of writing
the letters ‘M.P.’ after his name. When the contest
is over and he has time to think, it occurs to him
that perhaps after all the cynical electors were in