Three ways to perform an office

The mayor's residence of Bordeaux in the time of Montaigne

Most people, I think, love themselves in some way. For some this means that they want to show, if not showcase, themselves fully in the world. Others want to keep their inner selves private. I think that Montaigne had a bit of both of them. Didn’t he write his Essays as a kind of presentation of himself? A book that he published and republished several times and that he was editing continuously? Pascal (62) called it a “foolish project of describing himself”. On the other hand, as a public servant Montaigne kept his public and his private lives strictly separated, as became clear when he was appointed mayor of Bordeaux in 1581. In his essay “Of managing one’s will” he wrote: “A man should lend himself to others, and only give himself to himself.” So, when Montaigne heard that he had been appointed mayor of his town, he refused. His father had also been mayor of Bordeaux and Montaigne tells us how he “remembered … to have seen him in his old age cruelly tormented with these public affairs, neglecting the soft repose of his own house, to which the declension of his age had reduced him for several years before, the management of his own affairs, and his health; and certainly despising his own life, which was in great danger of being lost, by being engaged in long and painful journeys on their behalf.” It’s not what Montaigne wanted. But he had to accept the function of mayor when the King ordered him to do so. Montaigne performed his office so well that he was reappointed after two years, but he always kept private and public strictly separated, and took care not to get emotionally involved in the city affairs.
I have the impression that such persons who “split up” themselves when in office are exceptional. Many do like Montaigne’s father, who, so Montaigne, thought “that a man must forget himself for his neighbour, and that the particular was of no manner of consideration in comparison with the general.” They give themselves to the fullest. That is, so Montaigne, what is expected of us when we perform a public function, and it is what many people do. However, not so Montaigne. It’s not that one never should immerse oneself wholeheartedly in a public task, but it must be an exception, or as Montaigne says: “It is only borrowed, and accidentally; his mind being always in repose and in health; not without action, but without vexation, without passion.” This is quite possible, as Montaigne has shown himself, but reality is often different, “for how many people hazard themselves every day in war without any concern which way it goes; and thrust themselves into the dangers of battles, the loss of which will not break their next night’s sleep? And such a man may be at home, out of the danger which he durst not have looked upon, who is more passionately concerned for the issue of this war, and whose soul is more anxious about events than the soldier who therein stakes his blood and his life.”

However, there is yet another type of person performing public functions. It is a type not mentioned by Montaigne, although he must have been acquainted with it. Such an official – for in the end such a person is only an official, i.e. someone appointed or elected in a public function to serve the people – sees an office as a personal fief, as in medieval times, with all its consequences for the people he or she must lead or govern and for the tasks to be managed. Such a person performs an office as if it is a personal possession and the people involved in, ruled by or hit by his or her measures are treated that way. It is the way especially authoritarian leaders exert their duties and govern those who have become their subjects. Or rather, these “subordinates” are no longer considered subjects but have become objects in the minds of such functionaries; they have become vassals and people-at-large, and their only right is to obey. Such a person performs his or her function not only to the fullest but also often in a Machiavellian way, and if not, their style is not far from it.
Look around and judge for yourself.