Correlation Between Corruption and Society - Assignment Example

Question#2 Crimes and Justice

From research conducted on global institutions, administrations, supporters, aid employees, and peacebuilders, it has been recognized that corruption has very great charges for society, particularly within states evolving from conflict like the US, which has passed through several revolutions. Corruption can preserve the nation in cycles of ferocity through the funding of armed groups together with criminal networks and can preclude the growth of competent bodies of governance. The diversion of money along with resources present to the government by fraudulent officials than channeling to the right projects for the advantage of inhabitants makes the clock to turn back the community and economic growth. This, sequentially, can generate further uncertainty. These actions make corruption, governance, as well as a conflict to get linked. However, fraud exists ubiquitously in different forms and can get widespread within society. Together with Luther King Jr., Henry Thoreau radically alters the status of disagreement and political action within the US because of corruption actions demonstrating and instigating civil disobedience. Thoreau first articulated his concept of conscientious law-breaking as a form of morally empowered protest in an 1864 essay that would have a profound impact on activists and political theorists to follow, its title coining the now-iconic term “civil disobedience.” Significantly, King would also identify his work in Montgomery directly as “outgrowths of Thoreau's insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice." This study aims to analyze issues in which the government is unjust and immoral.

Corruption generally involves the abuse of authority by individuals that hold it. In their certified position, these individuals abuse the authority with which the citizens have entrusted them on and engage in seeking personal advantage. The personal advantage gained by fraudulent civic officials gets at the outlay of both the conjoint good and of people who do not fraud the system.” In this logic, corruption gets extensively regarded as a dishonest practice, and it is gradually getting condemned everywhere in the world like Henry Thoreau, together with Luther King Jr., did in the US through writing about civil disobedience (Jahanbegloo, n.p). Corruption, together with scandal, has extensively been consistent and noticeable topography of American government and politics. The corruption is evident from the oil, railroad, and land outrages of the 19th c and early 20th c to the executive, congressional, and election outrages of late 20th c (Wilson et al., n.p). The US has infrequently relished a standing for partisan integrity and institutional reliability. Most American states get recorded to engage in less corruption than others as well as the centralized judiciary practices lesser scandals in comparison to administrative and parliamentary branches. The mode in which fraud gets understood within the US involves the produce of lawful, social, commercial, together with political cultures as well as contexts. Guidelines regulating partisan conduct were noticeable by their nonexistence in the 19th c and, what might seem as corrupt by current standards has been perceived as political affairs as usual. There has been evidence of civil disobedience within the American government, making the public protest to fight for their rights. While Thoreau and King both played essential roles in civil disobedience development, King's focus was on community and his religiously-validated construction of justice that ultimately propelled it to more considerable significance.

In "Civil Disobedience," Henry David Thoreau presents his philosophy on law, government, and conscience. Thoreau asserts that treating obedience to the law as a moral imperative is corrosive to both society and the individual, as "Law never made men be more just, and respect for it. Even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice" (Miller., n.p). He argues that law cannot itself enshrine moral correctness, as the unjust remain unjust in the face of just proposals, but can only engender injustice, as the otherwise subjugate their moral sense to legal obedience. America is not great to this day because there has been corruption in the government for decades, which has had a drastic negative impact on the governed. As Henry David Thoreau eloquently stated in his essay, Civil disobedience, "the government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. One of the biggest cases of government corruption was the infamous Watergate Scandal. President Richard Nixon was the first United States President to ever resign on August 8th, 1974, approximately two years after details of deep corruption in his administration came to light (Wilson et al., n.p). While many argue that America has never been the great country that many claim it to be, others never fail to show chauvinistic support for it. Despite clear discrimination, there are people who think that America is the best country, because they have opportunities and freedoms that others might have made great sacrifices trying to achieve. However, people who believe that might also fail to realize that they are granted those opportunities because of the color of their skin, not entirely because of the country they were born in. There are currently people living in this country who are being threatened with discrimination and poverty because of their government, while others live extravagant lives, also thanks to the same government. Wealth and power are so disproportionate, many Americans also don’t recognize that just because they themselves are not the type to discriminate, does not mean that there are not others who are. While racism is a prominent issue, one must not forget that these problems are just as much about economic class. Clue, directed by Jonothan Lynn, is a film that comically tells the already well-known story of government corruption, where the main controversies are surrounding money.

From Thoreau’s concept of the civil disobedience, in the introduction of religious authority and community focus, is to enhance the power of it to inspire audiences and affect meaningful change. King’s outward focus transforms civil disobedience from an internal mechanism of non-compliance to a set of beliefs and actions that is inherently performativity, acts not only of bringing one’s own conscience into line with behavior, but of provoking the consciences of others into a similar response (Miller., n.p). This relate to matters of supporters of executive order stressed that it was not, meant to target Muslims many people referred to this travel ban as a “Muslim ban,” because of the demographic that was affected. Among supporters of the ban was United States representative Steve King. King claimed that the ban only happened to affect a Muslim majority, but the reason for it was those countries are actually extremely dangerous “terrorist-spawning countries”. Others criticized the ban because it prevented people from entering the country legally. For example, many were denied entry to America even if they held a United States Visa, or were current legal residents. This order was neither fair nor constitutional because it affected people who were never threat to the country, and had already proven that. Ever since the 2001 terrorist attacks, allegedly coordinated by Al-Qaeda, there has been bias towards the Muslim community within American citizens and government. In turn, this has allowed for direct action to be taken against these groups. Recently, on April 10th, Donald Trump officially engaged the United States in yet another unnecessary war when he launched missiles into Syria, likely prolonging the United States already extended conflict with the Middle East. Unwise actions taken by Trump have caused mass outcry, as well as support.

Thoreau boldly declares that not only is there no inherent moral obligation to follow the law; there is an obligation to actively disobey laws that are unjust. He criticizes the positions of the US Government-- the institution of slavery and US aggression in the Mexican-American War-- that compel him to these conclusions, and specifically decries those who willingly abandon the dictates of their conscience in order to conform to the law. America has been a corrupt nation since its birth, and in the aspects regarding government, not much has changed. Things such as: money/goods in exchange for political favors, and institutionalized discrimination, are not new problems in this country. It is extremely difficult to pinpoint the start of this government’s fraudulence, because it has been brought upon by both historical events, and elected officials. There are currently conspiracy theories of mass corruption in the White house due to the Trump administration’s alleged ties with the Russian government (Wilson et al., n.p). Some people believe that these ties involve more money than politics, while others even believe that our current president conspired with the Russian government in order to win the 2016 presidential election. Evidence that often compares events in the Trump administration, to Nixon administration, is daunting. Conspiracy theorists believe that America’s government is currently more corrupt than it has been in decades, because it parallels with mass political corruption in recent history; unfortunately, this corruption ends up affection innocent minorities most.

Work cited

Jahanbegloo, Ramin. The Revolution of Values: The Origins of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Moral and Political Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.

Miller, Derek. Henry David Thoreau: Civil Disobedience. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC, 2017.

Wilson, James Q., et al. American government: Institutions and policies. Cengage Learning, 2018.