Serendipity in Political Life

Politics is a conjuncture of ideas, external realities and public mood – the Cleopatra’s nose theory is therefore a correct description of a lot of what happens – most of the chance occurrences are unfortunate – but serendipity does occur – the interesting question is whether politicians themselves have any capacity to increase the likelihood of serendipitous occurrences – my answer is that they do, but exclusively by changing the ideas that cause the moods.