Power and Corruption

[uqlfy]

Is power corruptive? How about money? Drugs? I think it is not
any of those that are a direct cause of corruption but rather a
catalyst,if you will,for corruption.



Why are these things most often singled out? Goverments are corruptive,no? Sex can be corruptive,yes?

[Solidly-here]

Corruption occurs when a person gets lazy, about being good.


When a person has political power, he also inherits a higher calling. A non-government employee can do pretty-much whatever he wants (everything that is legal ... or that he can get away with). When a person swears the oath of allegience to uphold the Constitution, however, many more things are illegal (or unethical).


Normally, if I do not like someone, I can do what I want to them to retaliate. With political power, I can sic an agency on them, to teach them a lesson ("I have power. Don't mess with me"). This may be perfectly legal. If this same person is trying to qualify for government service, why shouldn't I put in a Bad word for him? If he is trying to get a government contract, why shouldn't I call a friend at Procurement and ask him to pass on it?


The answer to why is there Corruption: If I can remember to be a good person, I will skip past the thoughts which retaliate.


Money is funny. When you have very little of it, you can be unhappy that most of the thingsyou want are not available. When you're rich, you can buy just about whatever you want, but then life gets more boring (nothing to dream about getting).


If I have a lot of money, I will soon find myself surrounded by people who are impressed by people with money (they are attracted like a magnet). These wanna-be-rich people (or at least some of them) will do just about anything for more money. So, I can buy their hearts (or at least rent them). This skews my feeling about what it means to have a lot of money. Then, I find someone is immune to the lure of money, and at a time where he has something I want (a lot). I am so used to buying what I want, that I may want to FORCE this bozo to give me what I deserve. The end justifies the means.


A poor person can be just as corrupt as a billionaire (he just doesn't have as many opportunities to sell-out). Likewise for a person with no power.


But, aside from the basics here, most of the people who become rich are not the people who are kind and innocent. To get rich, you have to get your money from other people (for instance, a shrewd businessman); so if you're in a business, you must make more money than the others in that samebusiness. How do you do that? Work more hours, be manipulative, shady ... it attracts a more corrupt person.


How many CEOs are tender-hearted? How many of them would cry at night because he laid-off 500 people, and replaced them by machines? At one level, it's difficult to be kind, because you are ethically sworn to make your company as much money as possible. At any rate, the stockholders won't want a tender-hearted person to run their company. This means that those people with the power are there because they are cold.


Sex corrupts some (especially if a person is single). It's the BIG dream of life: Hot, sweaty sex. Virgins can turn this into the Best thing which could ever happen to them. After you have some, the Dream is (usually) a little bit smaller. Hopefully most married people are not so desperate for having sex. But, if a person thinks that sex is Real important, then corruption comes: I want it, but I can only do it if this other person is giving it to me (so, what can I do to get it?).


So, what is the most important thing to do? Can I forgo hot sex, a Billion dollars, and becoming a US Senator? If yes, then my values are in the right ballpark. If no, then what will I do to get them?

[billbong]

in most cases yes. most great or powerful of men/women who have power get corrupted. Scarface (although only a film) is my best example

[uqlfy]

Yes in most cases they do Billbong.

. What Im driving at here is that without power they still would still
have eventually become corrupt in some way. The money and/or power only
exploited a pre-existing part of their personality and sped up their
corruption.



Solidly-Here you hit it right on the head when you said "a
poor person can be just as corrupt as a billionare they just have less
oppurtunity to sell out."

[Nature Boy]

Corruption is a human trait as natural as life and death. Wherever there is information, power, and finance, corruption will be present in some manifestation. It's been going on for millions of years.

uqlfy is right more or less when he said that money was the catalyst for corruption. Human morality (though a lot rarer) appears to me to be the anti-catalyst for corruption.

Edited by: nature_boy_liam

[Diphenhydramine]

Corruption is the reformed form of the survival instinct. As
humans we still have animalistic tendencies to "fuck the rest of 'em,
ME ME ME." This is what we did in the very beginning in order to
survive. Anyway, when an opportunity presents itself, that
tendency can kick in. Like the CEO example, although a lot of
times their layoffs are misjudged. Yeah, it's horrible that this
guy lays off hundreds of workers, but sometimes it's the only option he
has. Cut off the foot to save the body, so to speak.



Anyway, so the CEO sees that his competition has cheaper goods.
That's bad. But then he learns about some 3rd world country that
will let him produce his goods any way he wants, no matter how cruel he
may treat the workers there. This is when the survival instinct
kicks in. He wants to beat the competition, to survive. So
he says, you know what, fuck morals, I want my money.



Thus corruption occurs.