"The prime minister found something hopeful in the man's eyes and manner. The 30 or so people who run this world analyze one another that way and then make decisions of life and death for us. Scary, but true"
About this Quote
Power isn’t just exercised in speeches or statutes; it’s read, almost superstitiously, in a face. Hugh Sidey’s line lands because it demystifies global decision-making without romanticizing it. The prime minister “found something hopeful” not in policy papers or briefings, but in “the man’s eyes and manner” - a private, bodily cue standing in for the fate of millions. Sidey is showing how much of geopolitics is still pre-modern: court politics dressed in modern bureaucracy.
The “30 or so people who run this world” is doing two jobs at once. It’s a blunt condensation of elite power (not literally 30, but functionally small), and it’s an indictment of the comforting myth that institutions, not individuals, steer history. Sidey’s journalist’s eye cuts through the civics-class version of democracy: the decisive moments often happen in rooms where personal chemistry and psychological inference become actionable intelligence.
Subtextually, “analyze one another that way” hints at a closed ecosystem of leaders trained to treat everyone else as a variable. Their empathy becomes a tool, their optimism a calculation. The “life and death” phrasing isn’t melodrama; it’s a reminder that war, sanctions, covert operations, even aid decisions are downstream of these tiny human readings.
“Scary, but true” is Sidey’s signature restraint: not conspiracy, not cynicism for sport, just the unsettling recognition that the world’s most consequential judgments can hinge on something as flimsy - and as human - as a look.
The “30 or so people who run this world” is doing two jobs at once. It’s a blunt condensation of elite power (not literally 30, but functionally small), and it’s an indictment of the comforting myth that institutions, not individuals, steer history. Sidey’s journalist’s eye cuts through the civics-class version of democracy: the decisive moments often happen in rooms where personal chemistry and psychological inference become actionable intelligence.
Subtextually, “analyze one another that way” hints at a closed ecosystem of leaders trained to treat everyone else as a variable. Their empathy becomes a tool, their optimism a calculation. The “life and death” phrasing isn’t melodrama; it’s a reminder that war, sanctions, covert operations, even aid decisions are downstream of these tiny human readings.
“Scary, but true” is Sidey’s signature restraint: not conspiracy, not cynicism for sport, just the unsettling recognition that the world’s most consequential judgments can hinge on something as flimsy - and as human - as a look.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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