Free Will Existence - Essay Example

Free Will With the introduction of the social and political organization in the society, man throughout the world has developed the urge to be at the apex of power. Power in most traditional and even in the contemporary society attracts respect, loyalty and to some extent fear. Acquisition of power traditionally differed with most society adopting the monarch system where the throne was simply being inherited, unlike currently most leaders are democratically elected into power. That is notwithstanding, ascending to power has always transformed individuals that were known otherwise to recognized in an extremely negative way. This leads to the realization that in deed power inflicts corruption of the mind and absolute power corrupts the mind completely (Blaug 67). The statement that power has the ability to corrupt the mind has been vividly observed in almost every part of the world. Individuals in the opposition have proven to be some of the best leaders before assuming the throne. They articulate people’s grievances and would convince that they are the best to be mandated to lead the people, ironically, when they are eventually elected to power they change to be the known despots of the world (Curra 97). In support of these, the history of Adolf Hitler can serve as an example. Hitler was German who was incarcerated for many years allegedly for castigating the regime that was in power then, after serving his sentence, Hitler was unanimously endorsed to be the Germans king on premise that he had vehemently articulated people’s voices and out rightly was the best bet then (Lewis 56). Upon assuming the office, Hitler turn to be driven by the ever-growing need to conquer the world by claiming every part of it to be German’s territory. In fact, it is well documented that were it not of the Hitler’s ambitions, the world would have not experienced the Second World War, power transformed Hitler to be over ambitious to the extent that he made it possible for the world war two to take place (Lewis 183). He ruthlessly killed millions of the Jews alleging they were evil, ignored the Versailles treaty that was signed between the German and the League of Nations, and became adamant in evacuating his troops from Polish Corridor in a bid to claim parts of Poland to be Germans (Blaug 125). This is a clear illustration that power can corrupt the mind to an extent that it insulates critical analysis of one’s actions and impact negatively to the society or a nation at large. With reference to power as a way of corrupting the mind Hitler is not the only culprit, there are other world’s leaders who have acquired the title ‘despots’ by the way they managed power, the long list includes people like Pol Pot (Cambodian dictator) and Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia (Lewis 204). At the helm of power, all these leaders demonstrated radical change in perception thus enabling us to construe that they were corrupted by power The notion that power corrupts the mind is a blanket accusation that cannot be used to include every leader who has been at the helm of power. We have very many leaders starting from grassroots level to the national level who have served in their capacities diligently with honesty and the rule of the law negating the fact that with the onset of power what follows is the corruption of the mind (Lewis 215). Again, when enumerating leaders who have shown deviance while in power, the proportion of the leaders who perfect this is negligible compared to the entire population. It is becoming necessary that we critically understand the relation between power and individuality, power itself cannot corrupt the mind, but the mind can corrupt power (Curra 198). It should then be construed the other way round. Before we relate power to the corruption of the mind, we should first have all the fundamentals of power that directly influences leader in power to depict contrary behaviors and without these, it will be elusive to admit that power affects leaders negatively. The other question that we should ask ourselves is the consistency with which the accusation occurs, out of those in power we know, a substantial number has no link with the accusation. It is therefore a personal opinion of certain individuals who have camouflage themselves before ascending to power to appease that they can navigate the interest of the people and once in power they manifest there hoarded character. It is thus important to note that the arrogance and corruption that comes with power is not obvious but is dictated upon by the circumstances. In most cases in the world, power has been characterized by assassination and murder (Murray 143). This has made the incumbents to design systems that are oppressive to the people as a strategy to intimidate and to keep at bat any mind that want to commit such acts. It is fair then to believe that the incumbent are simply conforming to the ever-ill motives of the people to deprive them of life (Murray 147). As a matter of fact, assassination of those in power has been experienced everywhere in the world, In America, we see J.F. Kennedy being assassinated, Frank Ferdinand Archduke of Austria was also assassinated in the garrison city of Sarajevo marking the beginning of the first world war (York and Coupland 134). All these have made the leaders to fear for their lives and have overstretched it to mount oppression in the people. It will be accepted that assassinations have characterized the circles around power for centuries now unfortunately these does not give a justification on using power as a means of intimidation and oppression of the people (York and Coupland 213). The minds that are corrupted with power has proven that even with the most compliance and tranquil society, tyranny and dictatorship can equally thrive to its best. Those who can be corrupted by power to commit atrocities and evils are hell-bent to see that happen no matter the circumstances they are in. instead of turning to be despots, those in powers should formulate policies that are responsible for dealing with cases of people who wants to access power in unorthodox means (Lewis 198). This would shows responsibilities and professionalism other than opting for the totalitarianism. The corruption of the mind by being in power has nothing to do with the fear of assassination. This is because for most leaders who have been known to be corrupted with power demonstrate a complete set of behavior standards that surpasses just mere provision of security. Hitler for example executed the Jews by dipping them in the concentrated sulphuric acid tanks and slaughtering them, his only allegations were that the Jews were evil and did not qualify to be incorporated amongst people (Blaug 176). These would have made sense if the same Jews elsewhere were being persecuted on the same reason. Since there was none, it looks peculiar to the case of Germany alone under the stewardship of Adolf Hitler and it can only be termed as an act of aggression brought by wielding power. Away from totalitarianism, power has also made most leaders to resist leaving office after elections, mostly the incumbents uses all the machineries at their disposal to cling on power as they fear leaving office due to the evils committed during their regime (Lewis 276). The relation between power and corruption of the mind has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Power corrupts the mind in very many ways, after ascending to power many leaders would be fast to forget about the promises and the manifesto they pledge to the people as their agenda for the nation. Most of the aspirant will always use a very lucrative and promising blue print to woo people vote for them after which they forget that they were elected on the platform of their proposal to the people and opt for their own ways of doing things (York and Coupland 321). It is a common feature too to observe leaders who have vehemently castigated corruption being at the top of spearheading corruption, this happens solely because when they get to the system it is completely favoring wealth accumulation rendering the previous patriotism no chance to be practiced (Blaug 294). Power on the other hand has led to arrest of activists, torture, and detention without trial for most people who are perceived to be anti government, those in power have also been implicated in assassination of their worthy opponents to enable them cling on power, rigging of ballots not left behind (York and Coupland 312). This paper’s thesis of the corruption of the mind by power should be critically understood on its context not only for the judgment of other people but also as a tool of evaluation for oneself to ascertain if one is able to stand by his/her ideologies even in the apex of power where everything revolves around him/her. It also enable us to understand that human beings are of diverse character and are only compelled by circumstances to act fairly or in a just manner. This calls for proper enactment of laws that will ensure that code of conduct in office in constantly adhered to no matter who is in power, this goes in tandem with the political good will. Works Cited Blaug, Ricardo. How Power Corrupts: Cognition and Democracy in Organisations. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print. Curra, John. The Relativity of Deviance. California: SAGE, 2000. Primt. Lewis, Lionel Stanley. When Power Corrupts: Academic Governing Boards in the Shadow of the Adelphi Case. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2000. Print. Murray, Don. A democracy of Despots. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1995. Print. York, Peter and Douglas Coupland. Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World's Most Colorful Despots. Chronicle Books, 2006. Print, Read More