Dear Friends,
It seems to me… corruption begets corruption, not only vertically but laterally. As a bad apple spoils a barrel of apples, a corrupt politician who gets away with it, quickly spoils the whole elite. The more public the offense ignored, the more destructive to the body politic, because it emboldens others to be as corrupt. Since people follow their leaders, if our leaders are corrupt, all of society will follow and be corrupt as well. Moreover, the more corrupt the elite are, the less they will enforce the laws among themselves, except as a political weapon. It all starts with one member of the elite getting away with corruption. That is why we must be utterly intolerant of even a hint of corruption in government, especially in our own faction, for if we allow it among ourselves, how can we condemn it in others?
People are self interested. Carneades once said in the Forum, and I paraphrase from memory, “Mankind imposed upon himself a set of laws as an expedient, for men being like animals, each striving for his own self interest, make justice impossible, because for a man to be just he would have to do violence to his own self interest.” How much more so when someone is above that law? One of equal station to another, who is flouting the law, morals and constitution with impunity, will wonder what is wrong with themselves for falling behind, in virtue, while he gets ahead in vice? The moment this paradigm begins, all is lost, unless it is reversed. Sadly, reversing corruption becomes more difficult the deeper it oozes into the system, since then… anyone in a position to clean it, has a stake in maintaining it.
Corruption cannot help but flow downhill. Up and comers emulate those above, not those below. They dress as their superiors, go to the same parties, talk the same, use the same jargon and laugh at the boss’s jokes. If the boss is corrupt, the bootlicks will follow and be corrupt as well. A corrupt person always feels most comfortable dealing with the corrupt, (due to mutually assured destruction) so the corrupt flunky will get promoted, at the expense of the stakeholders, good governance and more competent choices. As each level of elite get saturated with corruption that corruption must then saturate the next level below. Eventually, everyone in the system becomes corrupted and the system fails to function. Not because of an inherent flaw in the system but because of the nature of mankind.
How can people do business once society has become utterly corrupt? The short answer is, we cannot. In a society that has become corrupted top to bottom, contracts are irrelevant if one party has the means to have a team of attorneys nullify them, doing business on a handshake would become an anachronism, stores would face constant theft by a myriad of ways, as the thieves wouldn’t face prosecution, riots would rage uncontested by the “authorities,” razing businesses to the ground without insurance covering it, election fraud would be obvious and rampant, along with other clear signs of a culture crumbling before your very eyes. Clearly, an economy cannot function at anywhere near its natural capacity under such conditions. It must be hobbled by the corruption.
Encouraging virtue in the masses is a war of attrition against an overwhelmingly powerful foe. No matter how many times you shower and mop the floor, if raw sewage is dripping from above, it is impossible to keep clean. Every great empire, culture or nation that has ever risen in virtue, has fallen in vice. They become a corruptocracy run by corruptocrats. The corruptocrats have become so bold they don’t even try to hide their corruption. Punching down as in the Jan 6 trespassers. We can push back however. If enough of us are swayed, by Jordan Peterson and others, to lead by example while cleaning the government of corruption… it is possible to fix it. The next challenge though, the intractable one, is how do we prevent it from happening again? A Numa might be helpful.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
