Fear corrupts, absolute fear corrupts absolutely. Power mellows, absolute power mellows absolutely.
Arjuna
2012/04/08 11:55:23
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The great spiritual leaders of the world lived lives of piety and engaged the world with clarity, compassion and a desire to succor those in pain. Their lives were epitomized by a complete lack of fear and a confidence in the belief that what they thought, said and did was not only right but mutually consistent. They wielded (and still wield) an enormous power to inspire human effort and give people confidence in themselves and their fellow beings. The same can be said albeit to a lesser degree of the Lincolns, Kings, Ghandis and Mandelas of this world. They never sought power, yet, their lack of fear and their compassion vested power in them and that power made them ever humbler, ever more compassionate.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to say that about our current crop of leaders. From cradle to grave, fear seems to drive their lives. Every milestone of their careers, every stance, every ideology is based on minimizing the impact of that fear in themselves while leveraging the fear of others to push themselves to the top. The higher they go, the greater becomes that fear. At the top – in government or business or any other human endeavor, in their vanity, they call themselves the most powerful in but in reality, they are the most fearful. At the top, they wield that fear ruthlessly, believing that as long as they remain at the top, other, equally frightened people cannot touch them. Or, they believe that they can neutralize real or imagined danger from external entities by using fear to command and wield the people and the weapons at their disposal again such threats.
It is time to re-write the old adage. Power never corrupted. Fear always did.
I'd say that there are many places in this world that actually DO require a dictator, and that the inevitable overthrow of these leaders (or dynasties) is akin to natural selection. Fear, in such cases, inevitably becomes anger-- and anger is the great equalizer.
The populace realizes the actual magnitude of its power when it becomes a mob. Thankfully, it's only a fleeting phenomenon. :O)
I reckon a coup is always inevitable, but that hatred leads to an uprising, once fear has been overcome. Witness the Arab Spring. Won't be a benevolent ruler to emerge from any of that. The cycle will begin all over again... but it won't play out as quickly as it would in a Duly Elected Democracy. Those people need a tryant, for their own safety.
just keep going unitl they get caught and then deny!
not saying any one party is more corrupt than the other. but what the hell. when you have the likes of Nancy Pelosi & Hairy Reid what els can we say.
5 stars
― Mahatma Gandhi
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
“How often the priest had heard the same confession--Man was so limited: he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater the glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or civilization--it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.”
― Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
There is but ONE WAY out of the corruption and casting off of our fear! We can but HOLD FAST to...
― Mahatma Gandhi
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
“How often the priest had heard the same confession--Man was so limited: he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater the glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or civilization--it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.”
― Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
There is but ONE WAY out of the corruption and casting off of our fear! We can but HOLD FAST to the ONLY ONE that made a PROMISE HE CAN KEEP, The ONLY ONE that can clean us without Gutting us and killing us; The God Jesus Christ, as He died for our SIN and Proven that He can give us Eternal Life with HIM and that is through allowing HIM to help us in this WALK Here and throughout ETERNITY With HIM! He is GOD! Absolute POWER did not corrupt HIM and the FEAR we have of HIM is "CLEAN" and brings us Close to HIM! His FEAR or our fear of HIM has PROMISES and Purpose! And after we start a RELATIONSHIP with HIM, He ask us to help others, in HIS NAME! May other have given man's ways after seeing a portion of that (Jesus Christ teachings) light and have helped mankind, but we are not just talking about just an Earthly walk, it starts here, but we are talking a forever WALK, that walk throughout Eternity, See you there!
Add fear to the mix, the very thought of losing that power when one has begun to define one’s self as powerful, may cause that person to do absolutely anything to hold onto power.
These great souls may be able to enlighten others by their example and their teachings; but the individuals, whose powers corrupt, manage to disrupt what could be a peaceful world; their power seldom mellows...it will in time be taken from them by others who are desiring the same power, but I could not call that mellowing. Unfortunately, all the enlightment in the world cannot undo the damage done.
We hope and pray that the lessons are learned...but the next generation seldom wants to learn from history. Perhaps, when the world is full of so many "old" souls, the enlightened ones will actually be the ones to exert the most power...maybe we'll all be apart of this enlightened group, but until then...
A very good and interesting post, Arjuna.
My point was that what people call the corrupting influence of power is actually the corrupting influence of fear. The great teachers had power vested in them and lack of fear was a required condition for that investiture. Those of the darker flavor sort power and fear was a requisite in their hunt and acquisition of it. Thus the underlying core for mundane "power" is not power at all. It is fear. They believe they have power. They don't. All they have is the ability to influence others through force and/or fear. The powerful never needed to do that, only the fearful. However, since the world is so awash in examples of the baser variety we have almost forgotten the meaning of the word power.
Here is a quote I have believed in from the time I was very young:
"We are not human creatures on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual creatures on a human journey" - pierre teilhard de chardin
This is for a smile:
I did understand the distinction that you were making in your post. And I would concur that the true...altruistic...form of power does not have a component of fear. If only the baser form of power didn't rule the world! This baser power goes hand in hand with fear -- they're a team! Indeed, we will need to be a planet of old enlightened souls before that changes!
Thanks for the smile, my friend...I really enjoyed the video.