Absolute power corrupts absolutely
We’ve all heard the expression, and history has proven it, again and again. Men- and women in power, have committed heinous acts more often than not, and it’s rare that we see an absolute ruler do anything that doesn’t benefit them one way or another.
There is, however, a problem with this expression. It implies that power corrupts humans otherwise pure, making it, in essence corrupt or inherently bad.
This cannot be true, however. because, like other forces, power can be used for reaching the goal of anyone wielding it, good or bad. Like money, or fame, it can be used to better the world around us or the opposite, to twist it for our personal gain or benefit. This would make power in of itself neutral, meaning the acts committed by the wielder fall on their own shoulders.
Statements
Hence, in order to accept the statement “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” acknowledging that power is, itself neutral, we would have to accept at least one of the following statements:
1. The state of being evil in human beings is dependent on the ability to commit evil acts, meaning that the only reason people aren’t cruel is because they aren’t able to be, or would lose something if they were. This would mean that humanity is inherently bad, and that people, given the opportunity, and no incentive to be good (absolute power) would take the wrong path every time. OR
2. We give power to the wrong people, consistently- meaning that we always choose to give bad people absolute power, without exception. A complete failure to ever attempt to, or succeed to make good people stronger means that we are drawn to bad people. This leads us to the only possible conclusion that we are inherently bad, not just them. After all, power cannot be gained alone. Money, fame, and influence all require others to use and wield, and are worthless alone, without others to help accumulate them. Who other than the people are responsible for individual rise to power?
So which is it? Are we all bad or are we bad at picking people to wield power? Neither sounds very good, does it?
