Nov 8, 2011

How Power Corrupts

"We grew older, and we came to understand one of the central truths of human nature, which is that when you brush up against a truly powerful force, it is never quite as benevolent as you imagined it to be. In order to acquire power, you have to be at least a little ruthless.5 All you can hope for is that those who do acquire power operate by some sort of rough ethical standard, and even if I no longer deified Paterno, I continued to believe that the monolith I'd grown up inside was essentially a force for good. They did things I found untoward, but I always presumed they did them for the right reasons . . . . "

This comes from this article, a reflection on the Penn State scandal where young men were sexually abused and no one spoke up--all to save a football program. See the article here: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7205085/growing-penn-state

This sometimes happens in the church too.

1 comment:

Lyndsey said...

Marlena,

This seems very similar to Machiavelli's The Prince. Have you read it? At Cedarville, I wrote a paper arguing that Machiavelli's theory (a King can retain power by finely balancing political ruthlessness and a likable public facade) is incompatible with Christianity.

Thanks for the reminder that we are all susceptible to using power for our own gain.

Lyndsey