Spelling It Out

Many areas of ethics have little overlap with municipal ethics. But one rather specialized area that I came across has some interesting applications: the ethics of casting love spells.

According to an article in about.com, 'the standard position among Pagans is that you should never do spells to make a particular person love you.' With municipal politicians, this should apply also to spells to make everyone love you. Sometimes it's good to make unpopular decisions, and to make them openly, rather than hide them behind smoke and mirrors.

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'The best way to perform magick to improve your love life is to stick to rituals or spells that will draw love to you, but that do not have any references to particular people. Sort of like creating an astral love beacon.' A local government equivalent of an astral love beacon might be officials taking into account the appearance of their actions, acting ethically and openly, so that they are respected and deserve the respect.

'Trying to change the emotions of another is clearly manipulation and should not be attempted.' Yes, and that includes manipulating the emotions of citizens by talking irresponsibly about security and other button-pushing topics.

'Other ethical uses for love-related magick would be to help heal or improve an existing relationship.' Improving local government's relationship (relationship, not public relations) with the people in whose name it acts does wonders for officials' love life with voters.

And 'You might also cast a spell inwards rather than outwards.' That is, municipal officials should work not just on how ethical they appear, but more on how ethical they are. They should examine problems from an ethical perspective, and get others to do the same.

Here's the bottom line: 'There are spells, often called 'glamours,' that can supposedly change your outward appearance ... Even if such a spell did work, eventually your new love will see the real you, unless you plan on working magick on yourself every day for the duration of the relationship.'

Isn't that what so many municipal politicians try to do: work magic every day to keep the relation going until finally, one day, everyone sees the real person, and it all falls apart? Maybe it's best to dispense with magic altogether, except for those nice inwards spells.