One small scene on television keeps bothering me:
a senior politician arrives, and someone carefully pulls out a chair for them to sit down.
They look perfectly capable of doing it themselves—so why does this ritual persist?
One example of what feels like wasted tax money to me is the presence of people whose job is to pull chairs for senior officials such as cabinet ministers.
A healthy-looking politician arrives, and someone waits attentively, then ceremoniously pulls out a chair so the politician may sit.
I cannot help thinking: surely they can sit down by themselves. Yet this practice shows no sign of disappearing.
I do not know the exact status of those who perform this role, but they are likely civil servants or something close to it, paid with public funds.
When I asked an AI about it, I learned that these individuals are often ministerial secretaries or protocol officers—national civil servants whose role is to ensure that senior officials are seated smoothly and without disruption.
Directing someone by saying, “Please sit here,” or “Please speak into this microphone,” is not meaningless. It resembles the work of staff at a wedding hall. Given that senior officials move constantly from one venue to another, such coordination may indeed be necessary.
Even so, something about it still does not sit right with me.
These actions themselves may be what elevate certain people into “important figures.”
There are people who work to make important people look important, and politicians—who are supposed to be public servants—end up reinforcing their own authority using tax money.
When politicians raise their own salaries at will, postpone reductions in the number of seats, and leave issues of money and politics unresolved, it is hard not to feel disillusioned.
I am not paying taxes in order to help glorify such politicians.
That said, in a country where democracy is functioning, however imperfectly, perhaps constant complaints like this miss the point.
When it comes to taxes, my frustration may turn into misplaced anger.
Perhaps this, too, is simply the habit of those at the bottom.
