Where do peo­ple get these false, sad notions? The ​late Har­ry Jaf­fa said it stems from a pub­lic appetite for arti­cles which den­i­grate nobil­i­ty or idealism​: “Young peo­ple are led to believe that to suc­ceed in pol­i­tics is to prove one­self a clever or lucky scoundrel. The detrac­tion of the great has become a pas­sion for those who can­not suf­fer great­ness.” Pro­fes­sor Jaf­fa said that thir­ty years ago. He hadn’t seen any­thing yet.