Power and corruption

I do wonder, these days, if it is possible for us to lie to ourselves and one another more than we are these days. About the law. About how seriously we really take it or don't take it, depending on our purposes. About power. And about how much we respect it to resolve important matters, depending on our purposes.

This period has been one long lie. About people who believe power will resolve their problems as long as they have it and the other guy doesn't.

And no matter how much tragedy that belief has reaped on the world, people hold onto it like a money-chest waiting to purchase their deepest fantasies about how the world will finally be right once they have it.

It is a dark and awful legacy, that legacy of power. It is why Acton said that power corrupts. And I am, without doubt, convinced that he was right, today.

Watching American progressives and conservatives in these last 10 years, I'm convinced that power seriously distorts honest conscience and personal responsibility, which is exactly what Acton was talking about when he made that statement. It leads to a long defense of any behavior, no matter how attrocious, in the name of it. And no matter how many people are hurt, killed, or our most honest values undermined by our clamor for power, those who want it, badly enough, will defend it against even its most obvious abuses.

It is a sickness. Similar to greed. And driven by the deadliest of sins. Pride.

And it is responsible for most human tragedy, not most human progress, no matter the protestations to the contrary.

Power can be used, legitimately for very few purposes, and, after that, people should be free to deal with one another in good conscience.

Everything else has persistently and without end proven itself to be one long lie in the name of whatever purpose that lie is attached to.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And no matter how much we take those liberal thinkers for granted who made possible our ability to have that debate openly, honestly, and without censure, they were right.

No matter how much we pretend otherwise.