Power corrupts, does it?

It is said famously that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Let's leave the part about absolutes for another day. But, what is power and why do we seem to believe that it has such an adverse impact? To start with, please see if you doubt like me whether you understand what exactly this premise is about. It seems to be rather ambiguous. Do we presuppose that power is a bad thing and does it corrupt those who have it and wield it or does it corrupt who wants more of it?

Do you want power? I wouldn't know. But, if I had to guess, I would say yes. I know that I do want power. Even better, I have power. Seemingly very little compared to some historical persons or some others who are alive in the world at the present time. But, as a parent, at least, I have some power over my kids. Hopefully the benevolent kind! Of course, as they grow up, that power wanes, naturally, as it should. But, the question is might that power, no matter how little, corrupt me?

Have you heard of the legendary man of education A. S. Neill who founded the Summerhill school in England about a century ago? Many still acknowledge it to be the best school on earth. You can read all about it in his book from the sixties, called, what else, "Summerhill." I love one of his quotes from the book: "Every child has God in him. Our attempts to mold the child, turns the god into a devil!" He goes on to say that he resists the temptation to guide the ways of children. Even though his school was filled with troubled children. So, what did he do? Well, he let them free. He gave them freedom to do whatever they wanted to do, as long as they did not step on the freedom of others, fellow students, staff and teachers. Some didn't want to go to class. He let them. Some drove a bike around on the campus for a week or two. They were free to do so. But, soon enough they would choose to go to class and learn. Most even cut their summer vacations short to be back school early. They preferred the school to home where parents wielded, you know it, too much power.

Power is power, kind of an obvious fact of life. And we know of many powerful men and women who seem to get corrupted by having it. In business, education and of course politics. E.g., imagine a governor, a powerful political and executive personality. Let's say he is due to pardon an inmate, a murderer, who has demonstrated good behavior for many decades. But, he feels strong political winds against letting this man out. His conscience says to forgive. But, his political goals, meaning getting more campaign donations and going on to be the president of the country, say otherwise. In his quest for more power, he doesn't do the right thing for that one person. He is corrupted by not power, but for his desire for more, or for his desire to keep it. The right action according to his core ethics goes by the wayside. And many wouldn't even blame him. They say, he did the right thing for the many. He was a good guy and he deserved to be the president. If he needs to wrong a few to get there, it's, on balance, fair. The ends justify the means.  Needless to say, I disagree. I think such balancing acts are prone to "self-deception." We reason not from a solid ground, but backwards from a seemingly good goal. We have good intentions. We want to march on and over such "obstacles."

If you are like me, there is another danger to the premise in the title of this page. If we believe it, we might shirk from using the power we got to do even the right thing even when we know we want to do it. We get second thoughts. We fear being corrupted by the power we are about to wield. But, just remember that it is not necessarily power that corrupts, but the craving for more power, or for the preservation of the power we got now. E.g., over our kids, or employees, or students, or friends who give us a listening ear, or whoever.

To summarize, it seems that believing this oft-spoken premise might seem good at first. It stops us from wanting to grab too much power and from abusing the power we got like many infamous folk have done and continue to do. However, we have also seen that the same belief might turn us into impotent agents who waste their own natural power to do good in this world of dreams and nightmares.

So, I would say, power to the people to do good or bad sometimes to learn from their mistakes. But, let's beware the habit of wanting power for the sake of more power (click to read more on it), or preserving the power we got as we grow older. After all, to what end, do we want more power? Assume you got all the power in the world. What would you want to do with it? Can't you do it now, at least a bit? Or, do you really want to do it?