"When a person gains power over other
persons–political power to force other persons to do his bidding when they do
not believe it right to do so – it seems inevitable that a moral weakness
develops in the person who exercises that power. It may take time for this
weakness to become visible. In fact, its full extent is frequently left to the
historians to record, but we eventually learn of it. It was Lord Acton, the
British historian, who said: “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power
corrupts absolutely.”
Please do not misunderstand me. These
persons who are corrupted by the process of ruling over their fellow men are not necessarily innately evil [though today this theory could be hotly debated].
They begin as honest men. Their motives for wanting to direct the actions of
others may be purely patriotic and altruistic. Indeed, they may wish only “to
do good for the people.” But, apparently, the only way they can think of to do
this “good” is to impose more restrictive laws.
Now, obviously, there is no point in
passing a law which requires people to do something they would do anyhow; or
which prevents them from doing what they are not going to do anyhow. Therefore,
the possessor of the political power could very well decide to leave every
person free to do as he pleases so long as he does not infringe upon the same
right of every other person to do as he pleases. However, that concept appears
to be utterly without reason to a person who wants to exercise political power
over his fellow man, for he asks himself: “How can I ‘do good’ for the people
if I just leave them alone?” Besides, he does not want to pass into history as a
“do nothing” leader who ends up as a footnote somewhere. So he begins to pass
laws that will force all other persons to conform to his ideas of what is
good for them.
That is the danger point! The more
restrictions and compulsions he imposes on other persons, the greater the strain
on his own morality. As his appetite for using force against people increases,
he tends increasingly to surround himself with advisers who also seem to derive
a peculiar pleasure from forcing others to obey their decrees. He appoints
friends and supporters to easy jobs of questionable necessity. If there are not
enough jobs to go around, he creates new ones. In some instances, jobs are sold
to the highest bidder. The hard-earned money of those over whom he rules is
loaned for questionable private endeavors or spent on grandiose public projects
at home and abroad. If there is opposition, an emergency is declared or
created to justify these actions.
If the
(benevolent) ruler stays in power long enough, he eventually concludes that
power and wisdom are the same thing. And as he possesses power, he must also
possess wisdom. He becomes converted to the seductive thesis that election to
public office endows the official with both power and wisdom. At this point, he
begins to lose his ability to distinguish between what is morally right and what
is politically expedient.With this piece one can begin to understand the seduction of Versed/Midazolam and the moral hazard this drug places in front of medical workers. They begin to "...derive a peculiar pleasure from forcing others to obey..." The hospitals appoint "friends and supporters to easy jobs of questionable necessity" just like having 18 or 19 people involved in a 70 minute out patient surgery such as *I* experienced. The medical workers possess power as you can see by the comments on this blog. They claim that as they possess power they also must possess wisdom. I think this can explain why Aaron (my crna) believed that he possessed psychic abilities and was well within his (convoluted) rights to impose his will on me. He truly believed that he knew what was best for an insignificant (to him) woman because he had been seduced by power over patients with the drug Versed. He lost sight of what was morally right and went with medically expedient. They had become indistinguishable to him. Anyway, you get my drift.
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