A politically fallen man’s access to power can run through a single loyal friendship.
Evidence
Moses, meanwhile, was working (for a new reform organization, the New York State Association) in a shabby cubicle at 305 Broadway barely large enough for his desk and that of a part-time secretary. He was close to being out of even quasi-official touch with government. Occasionally, he would have lunch with one of the few people he knew in the City Hall area, former Bureau or Reconstruction Commission staffers like Ernie Willvonseder who were now lower-echelon city employees, but more often he had to eat alone. He had few visitors. But, in the late afternoon, the phone would often ring. Moses would pick up the receiver. “Bob,” Al Smith would rasp, “how about walking home with me?” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 486
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to biography-of-power themes: prestige and access decoupling from formal office, as in Caro’s treatment of political careers more broadly. — connects to: Governing-through-friendship requires an equal partner who will not flatter — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 606; Antiracist friendship survives only when both parties accept struggle and risk; Even power relationships involve reciprocal influence between parties — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 77
Broader Connections
- Governing-through-friendship requires an equal partner who will not flatter
#expands(0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 606 - Even power relationships involve reciprocal influence between parties
#qualifies(0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 77 - Antiracist friendship survives only when both parties accept struggle and risk
#complicates(0.70)