Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? — TiredThinker
I think the major problem is when absolute power is obtainable, when there aren't existing safety valves to prevent a person to have absolute power (like institutional separation of powers), then the competition for this power can become extremely ugly. And this corrupts power, because people will kill each other for that power. Because why not? Once you have absolute power, that you killed people to gain that position doesn't matter.Remember the full quote from Lord Acton, which answers your question. It refers to men and politics, not deities. And the quote is tends to corrupt not always corrupts. Although it looks like absolute power seems doomed to malfeasance. — Tom Storm
Just ask yourself, just how many absolute dictators or monarchs have been killed? And how many of these people with absolute power have killed people in order to sustain their position? Many. — ssu
Assuming that the whole society is built on absolute power both the power elite and the people are OK with the existing institutions. There are countries like Saudi-Arabia ...or North Korea. Or even Monaco, actually. Power transition can also happen peacefully.I've often assumed that to gain absolute power in a political sense would likely require deceit, violence and possibly murder to achieve and to remain there. — Tom Storm
In a way, yes. The absolute power is usually rationalized with the country and society being under a threat, either external or domestic or both. When you don't have this fear of everything collapsing otherwise, why wouldn't the leader share power or delegate issues to others?So the kinds of people that get to absolute power are likely to be compromised from the get go. — Tom Storm
This is true, but perhaps we should think just why this kind of power is given to them in the first place.I suspect there is a broader point that people who never have anyone say no to them might eventually become intoxicated by that power and take awful liberties with other's liberties. — Tom Storm
I've often assumed that to gain absolute power in a political sense would probably (except for inherited power) require deceit, violence and possibly murder to achieve and to remain there. So the kinds of people that get to absolute power are likely to be compromised from the get go. — Tom Storm
It seems it tends to ... :point:Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? — TiredThinker
I'd say, in this context, "power" and "knowledge" are synonymous: the capability of effortlessly "changing anything" includes effortlessly "changing oneself via learning" (i.e. without conditions, constraints, limits).Does absolute power almost require absolute knowledge?
I don't see how, again in this context, "cruel" and "self serving" and "boredom" are applicable an "Absolute" (sovereign).And with absolute power and knowledge would one be cruel or self serving if all actions require the same amount of effort and eventually equally add up to boredom?
Non sequitur. :mask:In that case wouldn't any such God be allempathy?
:fire:"Ch'i 'hu nan hsia pei" goes the Chinese proverb, translated in 1875 as "He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount." — James Riley
Nonsense. In any enterprise corruption equates to its degradation.
Gangsters are gangsters. Politicians are politicians. Feel free to make a joke about that, but in all seriousness there is a danger in equating them as identical in every respect. You can have noble and principled gangsters just as you can have noble and principled politicians - the ‘bad’ lives in every nook and cranny of humanity. — I like sushi
Nonsense. In any enterprise corruption equates to its degradation.
Gangsters are gangsters. Politicians are politicians. Feel free to make a joke about that, but in all seriousness there is a danger in equating them as identical in every respect. You can have noble and principled gangsters just as you can have noble and principled politicians - the ‘bad’ lives in every nook and cranny of humanity. — I like sushi
Nobody gets to where they are by being nice. The higher they rise, the bloodier their history. It's a rat race, dog eat dog. — TheMadFool
Is Putin a politician or a gangster. Or both? Kim? I — Tom Storm
Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? — TiredThinker
One cannot gain any position of power unless one is at least to some extent corrupt by the principles of official morality. — baker
I read somewhere, that when Gödel was applying for US citizenship, he started to take up the matter of the loopholes up with the citizenship examiner. Luckily Einstein and Oskar Morgenstern did calm Gödel down (as perhaps it wasn't the best place to start debating the subject) and he got his citizenship.ust as Gödel discovered back in the 1900s, the American constitution has loopholes that allow a dictator to come to power. What those loopholes are only Gödel and the friends to whom he had confided this info to, Einstein among them, knows. They're all, unfortunately, dead and gone! Beware Americans. — TheMadFool
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