There is this concept of politics as a dirty game. It's a

The words of George Papandreou resound like a cry for renewal: “There is this concept of politics as a dirty game. It's a difficult game, but it doesn't have to be dirty.” Here he unveils a truth too often forgotten. Politics is indeed struggle—of ideas, of wills, of visions for the future—but it need not descend into the mire of corruption. It can be noble when pursued with integrity, a battlefield not of greed but of service. Yet, he warns, too often it is captured by big interests, by the hands of lobbies that twist the will of the people into the profit of the few.

The ancients too wrestled with this dilemma. In the Agora of Athens, politics was seen as the sacred duty of every citizen, a difficult task, but one bound by honor. Yet as time passed, wealth and power began to infiltrate the assembly, and voices of the common people were drowned beneath the gold of the few. Thus democracy itself became fragile, corrupted not by the idea of politics, but by the men who dirtied it with ambition and greed.

History speaks also through Rome, where senators once debated for the good of the Republic. Over time, however, politics became a market, where favors were bought and votes were sold. The Republic fell into the hands of elites, and with it perished the dream of shared governance. So too does Papandreou’s warning stand: the danger is not in the struggle itself, but in allowing the struggle to be stolen by the powerful.

Yet his words are not only lament but a call to action. He insists that politics can be reclaimed, that it can be returned to its true form—a place of service, sacrifice, and vision. It requires courage, for the path of honesty in politics is steep, and those who walk it must face the enmity of entrenched powers. But without such courage, the people will always remain prisoners of forces that do not serve them.

So let this teaching endure: politics is not destined to be dirty—it is made dirty by the choices of men. Just as a river may carry both clear water and mud, so politics may carry both corruption and purity. The task of every generation is to cleanse it, to guard it, and to remind leaders that they are servants, not masters. For only then can politics rise from being a game of power to being the art of justice.