Fighting Off Political Cynicism and Arrogance -- a Plan

Read the whole column here:

Quick antidotes to conceit in politicians and for journalists and political aficionados prone to point out such arrogance:

• Weekly, serve for at least two hours someone less fortunate than yourself (AIDS hospice, nursing home, prisoner literacy, etc.)
  
  
• Say once a day, at least: "I am wrong, you are right."
  
  
• Read the Bible and pray one hour a day. Sit in a church under a pastor who can discern when a hard word is necessary and doesn't shrink from saying it. Confess regularly and openly your sins to some you can trust.
  
  
• Pray through Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ daily. (Excerpt: "This is the highest wisdom, by contempt of the world to tend toward the kingdom of heaven. Vanity therefore it is, to seek after perishing riches, and to trust in them. It is also vanity to hunt after honors, and to climb to high degree .... Vanity it is, to wish to live long, and to be careless to live well .... It is vanity to set thy love on that which speedily passes away, and not to hasten thither where everlasting joy abides.")
  
  
• Establish a relationship with someone who can put his knuckles on your desk, tell you to "repent," and to whom you will reply, "Yes, sir."

There are undoubtedly some other helpful ideas for those prone to self-importance (politicians, you, me), but these constitute a good start. Because politicians, I have thought even as I write this, are simply a microcosm of "We the People ..."