The Role of Promises in Our Society

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The Role of Promises in Our Society Promises. They play an integral part in everybody’s life. From the simple I.O.U. to treaties between nations-, everything relies on one’s word and promise. Promises have become a fundamental part of a politician’s arsenal to gain popularity and win votes. Many have long promised a chicken in every pot, but sadly, most pots are empty. Businesspeople love to seal deals with a handshake, another form of an agreement, another promise. Most promises are made simply to gain an advantage and are to be broken later at a more ‘convenient’ time. Just look at Hitler and World War II. Nonetheless, there are strong pressures on politicians to make promises that they cannot keep. A party that does not make exaggerated promises will appear bland, unambitious, and uninteresting to voters compared to the one that does. The lying party will thus almost always get elected over the truthful one. A promise entails quite a lot of trust in the promisee; one must evaluate the situation and make a judgement wether or not to accept the promise, weighing the risks and benefits. Even promise breaking in the broader community is routine, even in very important matters such as marriage. That there were 55,330 divorces granted in Australia in 2001, and the "crude divorce rate" was more than half the "crude marriage rate", and that this is a relatively constant feature of Australian family life shows that people will break one of the most solemn - and doubtless sincerely-meant - promises they will ever make. For politics, the matter seems different. The public expect that politicians should adhere to much higher standards than ordinary people. Citizens believe, nevertheless, that most political promises are like a salesman's patter - pious words not to be taken at face value. A Bulletin poll taken in April found that only 7% of Australians believed politicians were honest and ethical. John Howard, during the recent federal election promised an injection of funds into health that should have been made during his first term of Government,

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