"You know, to address crowds and make promises does not require very much brains"
About this Quote
A politician admitting that politicianing is easy is either a confession or a warning. Shevardnadze’s line punctures the romance of the stump speech: crowds, promises, applause - none of it is proof of competence. The barb lands because it flips the usual hierarchy. In public life, the skill that gets rewarded is performance: the ability to sound certain, to offer clean solutions, to distribute hope in quotable portions. He’s arguing that this talent is cheap, widely available, and dangerously persuasive.
The intent feels less like self-loathing than hard-earned realism. Shevardnadze lived through systems where rhetoric was currency and outcomes were optional: late Soviet political theater, then the brutal improvisations of post-Soviet state-building in Georgia. In that environment, a leader’s intelligence isn’t measured by how lavishly they promise, but by whether they can navigate constraints: institutions that don’t work, factions that do, foreign pressure, economic collapse, public impatience. Promising is the low-cost move; governing is the high-risk one.
The subtext is a jab at populism without even needing the word. He’s not saying crowds are foolish; he’s saying the crowd dynamic incentivizes dishonesty. A promise is a social transaction that pays out immediately in attention and legitimacy while postponing accountability. By calling it “not require very much brains,” he frames demagoguery as lazy craft - and asks listeners to stop mistaking verbal confidence for political capacity.
The intent feels less like self-loathing than hard-earned realism. Shevardnadze lived through systems where rhetoric was currency and outcomes were optional: late Soviet political theater, then the brutal improvisations of post-Soviet state-building in Georgia. In that environment, a leader’s intelligence isn’t measured by how lavishly they promise, but by whether they can navigate constraints: institutions that don’t work, factions that do, foreign pressure, economic collapse, public impatience. Promising is the low-cost move; governing is the high-risk one.
The subtext is a jab at populism without even needing the word. He’s not saying crowds are foolish; he’s saying the crowd dynamic incentivizes dishonesty. A promise is a social transaction that pays out immediately in attention and legitimacy while postponing accountability. By calling it “not require very much brains,” he frames demagoguery as lazy craft - and asks listeners to stop mistaking verbal confidence for political capacity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Leadership |
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