corruption dollar mask

 

“It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.”

 

 

Eric Hoffer

 

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“To be clever enough to get all the money, one must be stupid enough to want it.”

 

GK Chesterton

 

==

 

 

 

Well.

 

I am personally offended by the view everyone is corruptible by money. I am personally offended by the thought everyone’s moral compass is so broken that money can guide their direction rather than character or morality.

 
moral compass contextual you are here

I have written dozens of times about inequality and the absurd amount of accumulated wealth of the haves versus the have nots.

 

I can also unequivocally state I am not even close to being in the “have” group.

 

 

But I refuse to believe everyone can be corrupted by money. And I don’t want to live in a world which that is the common belief.

 

Not everyone is corruptible.

 

Not all rich people, or people with wealth, are greedy and selfish and corrupted.

Not all people in positions of power can be influenced by money.

 

 

I am not stupid nor am I naïve. I fully understand that money CAN corrupt.

 

I have never been faced with what I assume everyone has somewhere in their potential lives – the ‘temptation number.’ Some monetary number that makes you pause and question your ethics and moral compass.

 

corruption homer

I would like to think when faced with that wad of cash that I will look at it longingly <I think any human being would> but turn away with my integrity whole and moral compass unbroken.

 

 

I would like to think that there are other people out there.

 

 

Do special interest groups spend gobs of money to influence behavior?

Sure they do.

 

 

Does all that money spent influence everyone’s behavior?

Sure it doesn’t.

 

 

Does everyone who accepts money elect to NOT take actions in the best interest of their company, employees, constituency?

Of course not.

 

 

Simply stating we live in a quid pro quo world is suggesting that no one ever acts in the best interest of the moment and no one ever does ‘the right thing.’

 

 

What a fucking horrible world view that is.

Horrible.

 

 

I don’t like the argument that money sweepingly corrupts everyone.

 

In fact, I take it personally. As a personal affront. And I do not believe I am exceptional by any stretch of the imagination, therefore, I tend to believe there are a shitload of other people who feel, and act, as I do.
Corruption by money exists. I know that. But the issue to me mostly does not revolve around that there is an absence of morality but instead there has just been an emptying of significance.

 

Significance of self and significance in actions. Once you believe your actions, and behavior, has little or no significance than morality doesn’t even enter the equation.

 

political soul speak correctWe do not need to restore character we simply need to champion those with character and the significance of their actions.

 

And, yet, finding champions is difficult because the trappings & wrappings of Life surrounding the person make us judge their character not naked … but clothed in something <most often past behavior parsed out with lack of context so that individual moments look starkly simple in what is most likely a more complex multidimensional situation>.

 

In other words … we judge the smoke even without seeing the fire. And in that analogy that means in our assessment it is quite possible we confuse steam of character interacting with the stark coldness of corruption, moral & tangible, with smoke.

 

Look.

 

The demands of capitalism and the trappings of power certainly create the conditions where moral weakness, even but moments of weakness, can create less than stellar moral behavior. The demands of Life alone often force imperatives to dissolve into possibilities and right ends up intertwined with wrong.

 

And, yet, while conditions may be formidable and create formidable moral challenges I would suggest that character is a formidable foe to all.

 

Now.

Each of us would be lying if we didn’t admit that our character has some nicks & dents from past behavior. But we should never confuse nicks & dents with an absence of morality nor should we confuse these imperfections as total loss of character.

 

 

Look.

 

Corruption unfolds just as character unfolds, culturally & systemically, piece by piece as a reflection of individuals within a larger totality. At each unfolding the onus to block movement does not reside within any institution but rather within a person. One who stands and says “stop” or “go on.”

 

I refuse to believe no one is capable of standing in front of money, of corruption, of the demands that capitalism and greed force upon us, and say ‘stop.’

Or say “not here, not now, not with me.’

 

And in my refusal I tie that belief with the belief moral compasses are not of formal institutional system but rather have a symbiotic relationship with any and all. Therefore when one stands and refuses the ripples of one’s action can impact the totality.moral compass animation

 

I take it personally every time I hear someone generalize that money corrupts everyone and can subvert an individual from doing what is right. I take it personally. I take offense to the suggestion that I have done so <i have not> or I would do do <I do not believe I would>.

 

I refuse to believe I am extraordinary in any way. Therefore I refuse to accept  that everyone within a government, a business, an instiryution <like a wall street or bank>, or any organization is either corrupt or corruptible simply by dangling money in front of them.

 

I wrote this because I am offended. I am offended personally when I hear “we are in a corrupt system” because I have been in roles in which I could have strayed morally … and I have not. And I am offended that someone could so flippantly suggest EVERYONE is so easily swayed by money. And, lastly, I am offended that someone could think that our cultural moral compass is so broken that individuals, and society itself, is so misguided that everyone in any position of power is lost morally. I am offended because that view of the world is unacceptable to me.

And I refuse to believe this is the world in which we live.

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Written by Bruce