Power Corrupts Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely!

The article below is from the Acton Institute, Lord Acton was made famous for the quote “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Firstly, some musings on corruption.

I have worked in 400 organisations and met a wide range of characters.  I remember one who used to whisper gossip to his colleagues and his eyes shifted restlessly, he was not an honest person and when he didn’t get his own way would fly off the handle and slam his door.  I’ve seen men blinded by money and the demunition of those on low wages, employing and firing on whim as he saw himself as the power and wanted to be obeyed, evoking perfectionism without any understanding of life happening and practical workloads.  I’ve heard a rich woman ask – is 40 pounds too much for a window cleaner? so removed from day to day life.  I discovered her husband was gay and married her for her roladex of names to advance his career. I’ve heard management regard the workers as the plebs and the managers as the gods.  I remember wishing I had a Australian film crew to record the backward attitudes.  I have had conversations with a manager’s wife stating that she felt wealthy people were genetically superior, she honestly believed there was a superior gene and that is why they were where they are justifying their fortune.  I still laugh today when I reflect back.  I have seen consultants chock up their prices on a whim, they were not calculating how much the job was worth but what they could squeeze out of a client (common practice).  Whereas I chose to structure my prices to be fair (ethical) and I even had a Government Department ask me to put up my price.  I didn’t. It was put to me the argument of psychological pricing, that if I am too low they won’t think I am quality. Whilst there is truth in that I didn’t want to have one price for one and another for others given their income levels. In other words I wanted to provide a service to a charity the same as a multinational, I didn’t want them to miss out or be excluded by price. I have laughed at $20 per hour for secretarial work and $1,700 for a half day training workshop. The only difference is I stand up and teach in the other case I sit down and organise. Yet society views my worth as different given the occupational label applied to my name.   I recall being offered a job for a large government scientific institution whereby I would commercial scientific technology, I had to say no to the money (even though I had $20 in my account) because it involved genetic engineering.  I couldn’t lend my energy to something that I felt would cause harm.  I didn’t go for the money is the point.  My partner was stunned at the time, but I was not lost on the metal sculpture he was given at the time which depicted differing sized metal prongs on a base and there was a little twist at the top of each prong, it was an art piece depicting DNA on plants. Is that coincidence? To me it was not.

I’ve seen people take taxi vouchers for private use, or have dinners and charge it to the company, timesheets falsified, tax invoices upped, statistics changed, cash jobs paid and much done with the wave of a hand and a wink. Sometimes people do it to help you so altruism can also exist in breaking the rules.

I do remember making a conscious choice about my work orientation at 28.  I was offered more money to stay in a job as I was agitating to leave, I thought no I will go for the experience not the money, that was just before I chose to move to London.

So corruption is simply in my view, a pragmatic attitude of going for the money without any ethical consideration to the outcome, legality or notions of right and wrong.   There is a care factor of zero for others. It is all about themselves and maximising their advantage. I remember Adam Smith relaying that attitude as the foundation to the free market doctrine and not referring to the interests of the other, it was all about appealing to self interest. Hence, selfishness. The key for those self interested ones is to not get caught or the justification ‘why not everyone is doing it’ this is a sign that the social bar has dropped, that crowd mentality of just do it anyway, don’t worry about it. Behaviour is regulated on the basis of fear and consequences (getting caught) rather than moral fortitude.  It is really interesting when you meet people who put up appearances and have plenty of justifications for their actions but they are at base, dishonest not only to others but primarily to themselves.  They have a weakness, often emerging from low self esteem and a desire to be accepted through the status of money, to be seen as successful.  They don’t believe they can be valued without that status.  I find men particularly vulnerable to this thinking.  Women I have to say can be deceptive but more often than not they are the whistle blowers.  I discovered that in some research I did on Women in Local Government.  Women were more annoying as they spoke up and felt emotionally outraged at unethical practices, whereas men had a tendency to sniff the wind and keep on keeping on.  The research was interesting as it seemed to point to women as more relationship oriented with more focus on consequences where as men were more outcomes or goal orientated without much lateral perception of what could be the fall out or if the action could cause harm.  Of course I am generalising and diversity is as much within as between the genders, but I have observed that in my own experience.  The women will talk more about what bothers them and get angry, they will seek out advice. The men keep their heads down as they avoid the conflict.

What we are seeing in the present times is the lessening of moral fortitude (cultural ethics), inner values (intrinsic) or role modelling (parenting, society) of honesty, integrity and being a good person. The higher virtues are not as valued by society as outer appearances or being seen to be.  There is such pressure on people to be a success and to ensure good earnings with a modus operandi of outcomes (ends justify the means) rather than the externalities, social cost or ethical implications.  Cultivating virtues are seen as less important than cultivating wealth.  Inherent within this is the greed in these activities, saliently it is to make more money and you are rewarded on financial outcomes not on how ethical you were in decision making.  So the emphasis is money not who we are as human beings and developing our humanity in community.  We are seeing wealth or the gold in activities ‘out there’ rather than internal decisions where we find the real inner gold of esteem, dignity, empathy, integrity, responsibility and my personal favourite, love.    The system has created that emphasis and perhaps when we learn of more and more corruption taking place at the highest levels by those we thought were role models, using tax payers money, then perhaps the public will decide truth and integrity is more important.  I believe we are hearing the rumblings these days of great change. 

Indeed it does start with the public.  The big question is – are you honest or corrupt?  do you diddle here and there? do you speak the truth or do a bit of sleight of hand, a few white lies, what no-one knows won’t worry them.  Finding a good story to justify your deception. Everyone does it at some point. That is where the fractures begin and children watch their parents and learn that it is okay to lie or steal and perhaps cheat.  They observe how their parents treat others whether they criticise them as ‘idiots’ (blame, disempowering) or show respect for mistakes (empathy, empowering). We’ve all heard the person outraged at a mistake, I always silently watch the children to see how they respond. I see the domination in behaviour and the spoilt child in adult form who does not get their way play out. The attitudes of ‘why should I care they don’t care about me’, at times there appears no awareness of rising above or leading by example. I have to laugh some of the most outrageous statements about morality and honesty and come from people I know who are not honest, they can protest the loudest, you have to laugh at the irony, they see in the other corruption but don’t recognise it in themselves, conveniently forgotten, an inconvenient truth comes to mind.  I see the Christian quote “…And why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, and not notice the beam which is in your own eye? So always the change starts within with self honesty. If you want to rid the world of corruption start with yourself and make a difference that way. If you see it happening speak up with respect and truthfulness and provide a pathway to creative solutions – ethics/values training, conflict resolution, self esteem, community building etc. There are lots of ways to develop social capital through ethical development. Rewarding ethical/values based conduct would be a great starting place, perhaps in the home as well.

Here is an article on corruption and the notion of power over through control rather than power within (values).

 http://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-2-number-6/power-corrupts

Power Corrupts

When a person gains power over other persons–political power to force other persons to do his bidding when they do not believe it right to do so–it seems inevitable that a moral weakness develops in the person who exercises that power. It may take time for this weakness to become visible. In fact, its full extent is frequently left to the historians to record, but we eventually learn of it. It was Lord Acton, the British historian, who said: “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Please do not misunderstand me. These persons who are corrupted by the process of ruling over their fellow men are not innately evil. They begin as honest men. Their motives for wanting to direct the actions of others may be purely patriotic and altruistic. Indeed, they may wish only “to do good for the people.” But, apparently, the only way they can think of to do this “good” is to impose more restrictive laws.

Now, obviously, there is no point in passing a law which requires people to do something they would do anyhow; or which prevents them from doing what they are not going to do anyhow. Therefore, the possessor of the political power could very well decide to leave every person free to do as he pleases so long as he does not infringe upon the same right of every other person to do as he pleases. However, that concept appears to be utterly without reason to a person who wants to exercise political power over his fellow man, for he asks himself: “How can I ‘do good’ for the people if I just leave them alone?” Besides, he does not want to pass into history as a “do nothing” leader who ends up as a footnote somewhere. So he begins to pass laws that will force all other persons to conform to his ideas of what is good for them.

That is the danger point! The more restrictions and compulsions he imposes on other persons, the greater the strain on his own morality. As his appetite for using force against people increases, he tends increasingly to surround himself with advisers who also seem to derive a peculiar pleasure from forcing others to obey their decrees. He appoints friends and supporters to easy jobs of questionable necessity. If there are not enough jobs to go around, he creates new ones. In some instances, jobs are sold to the highest bidder. The hard-earned money of those over whom he rules is loaned for questionable private endeavors or spent on grandiose public projects at home and abroad. If there is opposition, an emergency is declared or created to justify these actions.

If the benevolent ruler stays in power long enough, he eventually concludes that power and wisdom are the same thing. And as he possesses power, he must also possess wisdom. He becomes converted to the seductive thesis that election to public office endows the official with both power and wisdom. At this point, he begins to lose his ability to distinguish between what is morally right and what is politically expedient.