Tolkien's Lord of the Rings takes this truth to the obvious and necessary conclusion: the Ring of Power MUST be DESTROYED, for nothing less can end the evil it creates. Here's Frodo desperately trying to give the Ring to Gandalf, who knows that simply having the Ring will cause him to bring evil into the world (dialog from the Peter Jackson film):
Take it, Gandalf. Take it!
No, Frodo.
You must take it!
You cannot offer me this Ring.
I'm giving it to you!
Don't tempt me, Frodo! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe. Understand, Frodo – I would use this Ring from a desire to do good . . . [long pause] . . . but through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.
Good insight. Power in and of itself doesn't corrupt. Guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people. Money isn't evil, the love of money is evil.
People just gotta control themselves.
Had a friend who became a self-made multi-millionaire. He remained humble, and we would often spend time together, dutch-treat. It just made things more comfortable for the both of us. Anyway, I asked him about money and how it affected his life. I found his answer simple, yet profound.
"Money is an amplifier", he said. "If you are by nature, kind and generous, this will be amplified; if you are cruel and greedy, that too will be amplified". As I have grown older, I have found those words to be remarkably accurate.
No, "power" itself doesn't corrupt -- as you point out, having a gun doesn't corrupt you, for instance.
Power with a capital P, however -- Power as Tolkien used the term, which is to say Power to COERCE with impunity -- Power as embodied in Government; Power that even the Mafia doesn't hold -- that is something else entirely.
That type of Power absolutely DOES corrupt, and for that matter it ATTRACTS the corrupted. It draws pathological personalities like flies to offal, and it is hellishly addictive (one of the major reasons I hold President Washington in such high regard is that he voluntarily gave up the Power of the Presidency, even when many were urging him to retain it).
That's why every so often we must spray for cockroaches.
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings takes this truth to the obvious and necessary conclusion: the Ring of Power MUST be DESTROYED, for nothing less can end the evil it creates. Here's Frodo desperately trying to give the Ring to Gandalf, who knows that simply having the Ring will cause him to bring evil into the world (dialog from the Peter Jackson film):
drain the magnet
Good insight. Power in and of itself doesn't corrupt. Guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people. Money isn't evil, the love of money is evil. People just gotta control themselves.
Had a friend who became a self-made multi-millionaire. He remained humble, and we would often spend time together, dutch-treat. It just made things more comfortable for the both of us. Anyway, I asked him about money and how it affected his life. I found his answer simple, yet profound.
"Money is an amplifier", he said. "If you are by nature, kind and generous, this will be amplified; if you are cruel and greedy, that too will be amplified". As I have grown older, I have found those words to be remarkably accurate.
Insightful.
No, "power" itself doesn't corrupt -- as you point out, having a gun doesn't corrupt you, for instance.
Power with a capital P, however -- Power as Tolkien used the term, which is to say Power to COERCE with impunity -- Power as embodied in Government; Power that even the Mafia doesn't hold -- that is something else entirely.
That type of Power absolutely DOES corrupt, and for that matter it ATTRACTS the corrupted. It draws pathological personalities like flies to offal, and it is hellishly addictive (one of the major reasons I hold President Washington in such high regard is that he voluntarily gave up the Power of the Presidency, even when many were urging him to retain it).
All of human history shows this. For references, I suggest R.J. Rummel's Death by Government (or his website) and The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression.
NOTHING commits and enables mass murder like government, and murder is only the most serious of its many crimes.
WOW!