This is a paradoxical expression, where opposed or contradictory expressions bear several layers of meaning. Here it refers to the modern times which is full of such contrasts, because of reversal of values. In fact, if things were normal, then nice people ought to be successful. And as a corollary to this, successful people ought to be nice. But things are changed and today wrong is right and right is wrong. Let us elucidate.
In our contemporary world any kind of achievement calls for a kind of art or skill that is another name for fraud. If you crave for promotion or personal gain you must know the art of flattering your boss. And ‘flattery’ is loved by those who rise by dishonest means. On the contrary, men who are really ‘nice’ love their nice or honest values more than power or pelf (= money). Naturally, they are thrown out in the rat race for power and post. If we survey our past history the position would be clear.
In our post-independence culture men who were honest, competent and forthright (= prompt) in their activities rose both in the peoples’ estimate and in the estimate of official valuation. As a result the nation flourished. The past record of these institutions would bear it out. Then nice, honest and sincere men were at top.
But today the reverse of it is the order of the day. Power corrupts and promotes corruption. It is a proven fact that honest and steady income is relatively slower than income through corrupt means and methods. Men in power have picked up this secret and for their social image they put on the mask of ‘nice’ men. The greater the villain, the more corrupt the office, the subtler his mask. There is a line in Shakespeare, ‘smile and smile and be a villain’.
The topsy-turvy (= upside down) picture of today is a consequence of changed values. We often hear today a term called ‘piling’ where pure and adulterated are mixed shamelessly. A similar ‘piling’ has come to stay today as human value. The so-called ‘nice’ men are found to be corrupt with time. He is defamed and deposed (= brought down). But his successor proves more subtle in his villainy. His false niceties are hard to detect, and he flourishes. He hides his fraud so successfully that men in general are at a loss to discern (= find out critically) it.
When this is the situation, those who are really nice and good stay back, for they cannot take such a road to success. As a result we are ruled, from year to year, by those who are nice, yet not nice, honest, yet not honest.
