Power Corrupts
And never has it been so evident as it is today
“Money is not the root of all evil. The root is our insatiable thirst for power. Money is but one of the many ways in which power can be accumulated and used.”
Lord Acton’s admonition, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” has never been proven so prescient as it is in today’s world. Corruption driven by the pursuit of power is widespread and visible everywhere.
Power, in the sense of Acton’s admonition, is the ability to direct and influence others to achieve your aims. This power is accumulated and manifested in many forms: in social movements such as Antifa and BLM; in governments and their institutions; in religious states such as the Iranian theocracy; in the actions of corporate leaders to pursue profits as their only aim; and in the actions of billionaires promoting socialist political causes such as Scott, Soros, and Singham.
Often one system of power (economic, political, or religious) will exploit another for their benefit. Such as when the business leaders use their power to corrupt or influence politicians to write laws that benefit their companies by reducing competition or mandating the purchase of the companies’ products or pharmaceuticals.
Or it can be when political leaders, such as in Spain, subvert the laws and institutions of their government to undermine the foundations of their society by enabling the mass influx of migrants with a different cultural and religious background. Despite knowing that this will displace the existing culture and native population, they continue to do so to retain their short-term political power. This same displacement is happening in countries across the EU and increasingly in the US.
Or, it can be when religious leaders, such as the Ayatollah, seek to impose Islam on the world by violence, including supporting the elimination of Israel as well as constant terrorist attacks against Israel via proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Or by indirect means, as when the Sunni leaders of Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia use their wealth to spread fundamentalist Islamic teachings through Western countries while at the same time promoting the false message of peaceful coexistence. Or direct means, as when over 10,000 Christians are killed annually by Muslims in Nigeria alone.
Finally, it can be when political leaders such as President Xi of China violently suppress all religions, both Islamic and Christian, as sources of opposition to Communist rule and control of the population. It also occurs when China subverts Western institutions and businesses to gain a stranglehold on their economies through control of critical supplies and means of production.
Evil, in the end, is expressed in the control and manipulation of others to benefit the persons or institutions imposing the control. It can be done to increase their wealth or power or to satisfy their sadistic desires and can range from individual acts of torture and murder through to mass killings, pogroms, and the enslavement of the populace, as exists in North Korea. In all instances, there is a person or group who uses their power to carry out this evil. Within institutions, their positions are maintained by those lackeys underneath them, who also benefit to a lesser degree but also seek to grow and maintain their own power by imposing their will on those beneath them, as do those beneath them, etc.
Power, in this regard, is a cancer that grows and corrupts people and institutions. To remove the visible head of an evil institution is likely to do nothing to remove the evil that the institution that they lead performs. When one Ayatollah is removed, another is shortly appointed to take his place, and their aims continue unabated, as is now so obvious in Iran. The same occurs when a corrupt political or business leader is removed. The functions of the institution remain, as it still carries all the parasitical ticks who feed on the power that the institution holds. Until the whole body of the institution is destroyed and all of these ticks are killed, the corruption will remain and continue to grow and infect others.
As these cancers have grown and spread around the world, our ability to resist and destroy them grows weaker. Not only are they all attempting to destroy or subvert the remaining bastions of decency, they are also attempting to do the same to the competing systems of power. In effect, it is a free-for-all battle for power that is being fought on all fronts, on all levels, all the time.
Welcome to the 21st century.