Does power always corrupt?

[IndigoSensor]

stfu or you get teh ban!

j/k hehe

But that ban hammer is so puny!!!

Here, use mine . It's muuuuuuch bigger, and got a multifunction setting to ban AND squash at the same time!

...Power doesn't corrupt. SEE?! heh.

 

[under skies]

I don't think that every person given power would eventually try to take over the world or anything, but I do think that humans are inherently selfish enough that, if given an unlimited amount of power, they might do things they normally would never think of doing.

You don't have to be a bad person to do very corrupt things. I think it has more to do with what you learn to accept as normal. If you were given an unlimited amount of power, something that would have greatly impressed you before may not seem like such a big deal. So you just never know.

I guess this is a little like that question someone asked awhile ago about whether or not you would jump in front of a bus to save someone or something. You can romanticize it all you want, but you just never know how you would truly behave in such an extreme situation.



Anyway, is it totally lame for me to point out that even Dumbledore couldn't resist the idea of absolute power, hence his obsession as a young man with the deathly hallows?

As a random side note, I actually found out I was an INFJ after taking a "What Harry Potter character are you?" quiz that claimed Dumbledore was an INFJ.

 

[enfp can be shy]

the good mod
the bad mod
the evil mod
NAI
Indy
Chuck Norris
Nicole Kidman

 

[sassafras]

the good mod
the bad mod
the evil mod
NAI
Indy
Chuck Norris
Nicole Kidman

What's the descending scale... pure evil? Or washed up Hollywood actor?

 

[Rakawi]

But that ban hammer is so puny!!!

Here, use mine . It's muuuuuuch bigger, and got a multifunction setting to ban AND squash at the same time!

...Power doesn't corrupt. SEE?! heh.

There is no hammer....

Is this the Matrix?

 

[enfp can be shy]

What's the descending scale... pure evil? Or washed up Hollywood actor?

I didn't include you, to avoid n00b humiliation for all the others. Plus you are batman-ninja, so even if I try to add you, you'd be stealth, cause whoever could see you, dies. ^_^

 

[sassafras]

I didn't include you, to avoid n00b humiliation for all the others. Plus you are batman-ninja, so even if I try to add you, you'd be stealth, cause whoever could see you, dies. ^_^

Thank goodness you didn't include me! I'd hate to see you have an... accident.

*tackles ENFPcanbeshy*

 

[the]

I have a saying, God knows no righteous. In short it means that only God sees what you do behind closed doors and only God knows the thoughts in your head. In my opinion what defines a man is not what he says or does infront of others but by what he does at home and what his thoughts are on.

Nobody is perfect and sin is a slippery slope, so in my mind it is not if the leader will abuse the power, but when and how so.

Why wouldnt both things define a person? Why only the secret things?

 

[Flavus Aquila]

Power corrupts...absolute power corrupts ABSOLUTELY.

Few people can handle power and use it fairly and justly. Take cops for example, most people that are cops wanted to be a cop for the badge,gun, authority. Many were the type that got abused by bullies in school and always dreamed of revenge and wished for power, and many women cops were often not given enough attention and mistreated at home and wished they were tough and could fight back.

I see this the most with Law Enforcement than any other field. In the old days it was over use of the cop's baton, nowadays it's the "often lethal" taser stun gun. Many people believe that striking a cop will get them harder jail time, if not even possibly shot, even if unarmed, even if dealing with an a-s-s-hole power abusing cop itching to instigate a quarrel and most cop's know this.

Many cops believe that most citizens will take it , just staying quiet while the cop cusses someone out, or just laying on the ground while they put a beating on someone who's not fighting back anyway.


These type of people who seek this type of work are often power-seeking individuals bent on wielding and displaying authority and might. I find it funny that most cops that love their power are often times p-u-s-s-i-e-s by themselves and won't take immediate action unless it's at least 3 cops on-1 if the guy being arrested happens to be a heavyweight strong man who's super aggressive.

Often many times you won't hardly EVER see an old timer cop who relishes his or her power , it's almost always the younger generation cops who have something to prove to the public.

It's getting worse with Law Enforcement these days because many military soldiers finishing their term from the Marines or Army are fresh out of the mid east slaughter-fest, with PTSD problems , and getting hired as cops wherever they live nationwide. Used to constant day to day shouting, weapon drawing, giving verbal abuse, and just down right making snap judgments when someone doesn't move when they say move.

Power does corrupt, especially with cops. The majority of the public allows much of this to simmer and keep brewing , not really doing nothing about it. 2 or 3 cops will have someone face down on the parking lot pavement, hands cuffed already, the one cop will shout stop resisting when the person is totally subdued NOT RESISTING with a cop's knee behind the person's head with all his weight and force pressing down on the person's neck...the person will be shouting "I can't breathe , get off !" and one of the other cop's will whip out the taser... zzzz-crackle-zzzz-crackle-zzzz, ect. Meanwhile bystanders will just stand by like sissy sheep and let the cops abuse the hell out of their authority and either baton or taser someone almost to death when they pose absolutely NO THREAT.

Maybe a few people will have just a teeny weeny bit of bravado and yell to the cops "stop doing that! that's police brutality!" but will often recoil in silence when the piece of s-h-i-t scum cop shouts back " yell at us one more time and you'll get some!!!"- 50 capable people could be watching but wouldn't dare jump in to stop 2 or 3 cops from beating or clearly abusing someone who was totally helpless...WHY ...???

It goes back to the POWER issue and many people see that silver shield on someone's chest and it's like a God status... "we can't touch them or we will pay dearly...even if they are clearly in the wrong".

Again...most cops know this, and people who want to be cops,that's why no other field draws so many rotten to the core evil people seeking power than Law Enforcement. That power and display of power, that feeling of "I'M UNTOUCHABLE " is like a drug to these twisted sadistic bastards that thrive on inflicting pain on the helpless.

Deep down the cowardice comes out of these people when they are by themselves and the odds are even. A lone cop will often wait till the other puss cops like his self show up before they abuse someone who just may have been walking on the sidewalk one night and a cop decided to display his power and ask the person for their I.D. , person may have said "I ain't gotta show you s-h-i-t", ... what will most responses of this particular cop be? Why of course..call for back up , and get 2 or 3 more cops there on the scene to get in on the beatdown that the original lone cop wanted to start. I have seen them do this more than once during my teens.Asking for the I.D. was nothing more than an exercise and classic abuse of their power.

These type of cops often create situations where no situation would be had the cop not instigated it to begin with. The courts are almost always on the side of the power-corrupt cop, and it even can get uglier and more corrupt when you start dealing with Judges and Prosecutors who act like a higher class of God than the mini-Gods who physically put cuffs on people.

The original post was not on police power, but I stress that there is no better analogy comparison when looking into people who are mad POWER hungry and corrupt to the core than Law Enforcement, there is a special place in hell for these people who love abusing their power, I believe that strongly.

What you describe about cops supports other possible conclusions besides "that power corrupts":

* Power attracts the corrupt.
* Newly gained power corrupts.
* The longer one has power, the less corrupt one becomes.