March 18, 2005
Opinion:
Like peanut butter and jelly, some things just go together...
By Jack Grant...such as power and corruption.
I can't recall who first asked this question, but I feel it is an extremely good one that we may need to find an answer for very soon:
Power may corrupt some, but is it more accurate to say that power attracts the corruptible?(If you know who first asked this question, let me know and I'll modify the post to reflect appropriate credit)
If one is to take what the Bull Moose has been writing about Tom DeLay and his cronies at face value (and I have never seen anything he has posted that goes against the available evidence), then it is not hyperbole when he contends:
Tom DeLay has become the poster boy for the corruption of the Republican Revolution. After a decade of power, the GOP has accomplished what it took forty years for the Democrats to achieve. They are a corrupt ossified bunch who is led by a Boss Tweed without scruples.It is particularly ironic that the Republican and conservative establishment is marinated in the sweet slush of gambling money. The Abramoff/Scanlon/DeLay/Reed Indian gaming scandal has ensnared a whole host of once revolutionaries who have feasted on the wages of sin. Even the pious Dr. Dobson has been pulled into the scandal - is he a fool or a knave?
Money and cronyism has long played a large role in American politics. For example, see the Teapot Dome scandal, the Whiskey Ring, the Credit Mobilier of America scandal, and the Keating Five (mostly Democrats, to show that Republicans like DeLay are not alone in their corruption).
However, just because money and cronyism have such a long history of influencing our government does not mean we should accept it as a matter of course.
The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use - of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.Think about it...
-Robert F. Kennedy (1925 - 1968), 'I Remember, I Believe,' The Pursuit of Justice, 1964
Posted by Jack Grant at 16:43 on 18 March 2005
Found the following after a quick google search:
"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
Missionaria Protectiva
Text QIV (decto)
Chapterhouse: Dune
Seems to be attributed to the Bene Gesserit from the Dune series.
I don't know if this is the original source or not, just thought I'd share it...
