Max Weber: Politics as a Vocation- Reflection

"This is the decisive psychological quality of the politician: his ability to let realities work upon him with inner concentration and calmness. Hence his distance to things and men. ‘Lack of distance’ per se is one of the deadly sins of every politician. It is one of those qualities the breeding of which will condemn the progeny of our intellectuals to political incapacity. For the problem is simply how can warm passion and a cool sense of proportion be forged together in one and the same soul? Politics is made with the head, not with other parts of the body or soul. And yet devotion to politics, if it is not to be frivolous intellectual play but rather genuinely human conduct, can be born and nourished from passion alone. " (p. 115)

Max Weber makes it clear all thought his speech that being a politician is a calling as one would traditionally have to a god or a faith. The character of a politician from this point of view is very nihilistic because it not only strips the politician from a traditional honor as a professional but also his commonality of his manhood. I suppose that's what makes it a vocation, it calls that individual to be set apart.
I chose this passage because it gives a great example of the nihilistic theme. Here Weber explains that basically the profession is imbeded in the individual from his creation because he is psychologically made up to accommodate his vocation. The politician has certain characteristics such as isolation from others even parts of his own self, such as his soul. All he does is think, utilizing his inner concentration and calmness not necessary humility or happiness being the source.