“Only he who in the face of all this can say 'In spite of all!' has the vocation for politics.”Max Weber · Politica, o vocație · 1919 · Politica, o vocație, paragraful final
A vocation means staying 'nevertheless' after you have seen everything, not staying because you don't know.
Weber does not idealize politics: he describes it as a terrain of interests, vanities, and raw power, and whoever enters must know precisely what they are entering. The mechanism is lucid endurance: not illusion, but a decision made after illusion has died. Those who stay out of naivety collapse at the first disappointment; those who stay with open eyes have a foundation. A young parliamentarian who, after a party scandal, chooses not to quit but to work more honestly lives out this 'in spite of all.'
Weber adds a harder condition than mere endurance: the "nevertheless" must be said again, at every disappointment, not just once. Vocation is not a decision made at the start, but a renewed resolve. Someone resigning after the second scandal didn't lose the vocation at the first; they lost it when they stopped reaffirming it. Think of a doctor who, after yet another failure of the system, chooses again to come on shift. The next question: where does anyone draw the energy for this renewal, if not from illusions?
Why it matters It speaks to anyone tempted to abandon an imperfect field, from activism to medicine: the difference lies between staying out of naivety and staying out of clear-eyed conviction.