A famous quote expanded
Submitted by River Rover on Mon, 02/08/2021 - 3:41pm
In 1887 an Englishman called Lord Acton famously wrote
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power
corrupts absolutely”
I don’t have an
argument
with that
but it
seems
to me he
stopped a
little short of
the whole truth
so I will fill in the rest -
power tends to make you stupid
and absolute power ... well y’all get it
This purty well explains why wars get
started, corporations go bankrupt
and governments fall.
Comments
Hubris explained. Excellent.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
@enhydra lutris thanks You too el
thanks
You
too
el
Rivers are horses - and kayaks are their saddles
Acton talks about a human failing.
The entire quotation is
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” (From the Acton Society web page)
The complete quotation is not as forceful and is why it's almost always left out. I prefer to stop after ". . . Great men are almost always bad men . . . ." My political experience over the last 60 years or so of my life has proven it to me anyway. Take a look at the political rogues gallery we have had just in this country during my lifetime: Truman and the Dulles brothers, Nixon, Reagan, Kissinger, the two Bushes, the two Clintons, Obama, Trump, Biden, Mitch McConnell, and so many more of both parties. I left out many, many names, but you can fill them in pretty easily I imagine.
We had better start acting up pretty soon or we will have even more obstacles to overcome. A little plug here: I just registered with The Peoples Party here in California. I'm too old for the barricades and I regret it. But I can do this. You might consider it too.
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962