What are your thoughts on this phrase, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"?
by 
Parsec13
ANSWERS: 8
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I think it's mostly true. Sad, but true.
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It think it is a statement of the bloody obvious. Concentrated power has a tendency to warp human decency.
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I think it's nonsense. The saying seems true because, in general, the greater the power a person seeks, the more corruptible they are. Someone who is content with a little power is generally a little corruptible, and someone who seeks absolute power is most likely very (if not absolutely) corruptible. Maybe better put, usually people are already pretty damned unscrupulous before they achieve their power. The power doesn't corrupt them (because they can't be corrupted much more), they simply can finally act out their true selves. Some people, generally the ones that are practically forced into having power, are very judicious, if reluctant, with their use of power, and even absolute power will not compromise their integrity. Although there will always be people who dislike SOME uses of power, and will judge them for it.
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I think absolute power does not corrupt people, instead it makes corruption that is normally concealed by being powerless more apparent.
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I absolutely agree! ;-)
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Well people may say it but they say it wrong. The original quote is all power tends to corrupt, absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely. There is a subtle difference. And I agree with this form. Your misquote doesn't allow for the few who are not corrupted by power.
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The quote is from Lord ACton and reads "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton. He was supported in this statement by William Pitt, the Elder, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778, "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it" Do I agree? I think I do, at least as power is in human hands. You can count on less than one hand the number of powerful humans who have done unlimited good with the power they have been given, no matter how well-meaning they were at the beginning. Orwell shows this in Animal Farm, when, at the end, the pigs are seen standing on two legs.
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It is correct. History has proven it true even as we speak. The American election shows two dominant parties that control all branches of government and are too wound up with their own special interests that they dropped the ball on the People and ever one of them should be out of a job when their term is up. Especially some of them who have been there for many years. Too many years. It is time for them to go home.
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