Well lets start this off blog off right, with the biggest lie, we as a society, as a species have bought; “Power corrupts”. I contend that power does not corrupt, but that corrupt people seek power.

First who are corrupt people? Many of my conservative friends and comrades will say liberals. Well that is wrong. Are corrupt people sociopaths? I contend yes, but I will discuss sociopaths on another day. For the case of this argument let us say that anyone who needs power to justify their existence is a corrupt person. Anyone who lacks a clear definition of right and wrong, whose moral compass is out of alignment, which lack honor or integrity, are corrupt people.

When questioning a statement, if any part of the statement is false, and can be proven so, then the whole of the statement is false. To say that power corrupts is to say that everyone, no matter how noble or honorable, when given power will become corrupted. One only needs to look at the founding fathers of the United States of America to see that this statement is false.

These gentlemen for the most part were men of honor and integrity. Yes they had their faults and their failures yet they still held true to themselves and more importantly to the people who trusted them with power, when they wrote the constitution of the United States of America. These were men who could have set themselves up as kings. Who could have grabbed power for themselves, yet they did not? Why? A simple explaination is that they were not corrupt men.

I know I have simplified the argument, and the merits and faults of our founding fathers could be discussed at great length, but that is not the point of this argument. The point is that these men disprove that statement that power corrupts. The truth is that corrupt people seek power.

We have bought this lie because on the surface it seems true. Look to any position of power and you will see corruption. This is because corrupt people seek power. A corrupt person will do anything and everything to obtain power. They will cheat, lie, murder, steal, and are not above any means as long as their ends, power, are met. Thus the ends justify the means in their minds. Great men, good men (and by men I of course also mean women) do not believe that the ends justify the means.

We have been sold this lie, because it makes those who are not corrupt believe that there is no hope. No way that we can expect anyone who has power to stay un-corrupted. When you believe this lie, you give away the moral and real responsibility of holding people responsible for their corrupt behavior while in power.

In truth if this great country of ours is to survive, we need to hold people in power responsible for their own corruption. We need to hold them to a higher standard. We need to stop making excuses for them because ‘power corrupts’.

Rich Ahlgrim