Late in this book of biographical essays, David Runciman discusses how Barack Obama took consolation from the thought that each of us is but a blip in human history. Runciman finds this “a little disappointing”. I would go further — it is a devastating thought that even a man bestowed with such gifts as the former US president might search world history for comfort in his own triviality. What was it all for?
It is also a well-chosen insight in a book full of them, and captures nicely its overall theme: what gnaws at those at the top are not the bad decisions but a stifling sense of impotence. As US President Harry Truman said of his successor, Dwight Eisenhower: “He’ll sit here, and he’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen.” In Runciman’s words: “the power they had imagined was illusory”.
As a recently departed adviser in Downing Street, these words cut deep. When I took the job, a former colleague teased me about the lack of levers I would have to pull. I spent two years learning what he meant: outside of war, no politician can just order their policies into existence. There are layers of people, laws, money and custom to wade through b