Ethics, Principles & Results. Pick Two.

I think I may have found something here. In engineering, there is a three legged proposition. Speed, quality and cost. You have to pick two. If you are building something, you can build it quickly and cheaply but it won't be of high quality. Or you can build something of high quality and low cost, but it will take forever. Or you can build something of high quality, quickly, but it will cost a lot.

Now we turn to the world of political ideas. You can stick to your principles and your ethics, but you probably won't get anything done. Or you can pick you principles and your results, but you'll have to play dirty to get it done. Or you can ruffle no feathers and get what you want, but you'll have to play both sides. Let's give these tactics some names shall we?

Ethics + Results - Principles = Pragmatist.

Ethics + Principles - Results = Theorist.

Principles + Results - Ethics = Tyrant.

See?