The Abusive Permission That Leaders Give Themselves. It's Called Corruption but It Leads to Desperate Bloody Revolution

What has been a feast for movie goers eyes, ever since movies began, has been a forbidden vision and a cautionary tale; while it still "twitterpates" our senses and creates a kind of unspoken lust for the dusty ancient past.

So, as we stare in schizophrenic wonder at these mixed message images, we have to take our own pulse and say: "Does the lack of a dying gladiator and a slave being drawn and quartered mean that we are not like Rome?"

It is as if the caricature of corruption makes it farther from us. It is as if we subconsciously think: "We are not corrupt like Rome because there are no bloodied bodies and naked slave girls!"

Corruption - A Very Human Condition

But if we can lift our point of view from the drama of our best historical example and think of societal and legal corruption in a larger way, we can conclude some things:

Personal Corruption, Machine Corruption, Systemic Corruption, Endemic Corruption.

Everyone has figured out ways of "gaming the system" and everyone kind of knows that everyone else knows that this is "accepted" and "OK" and is not going to get you specifically in trouble, because absolutely everybody does it. is like the Plague. Corruption is open. "Get yours while the getting is good". As you can probably imagine, the worse corruption gets, the more open, accepted and ignored it becomes.

The Best Corruption - You Just Allow. You Don't Have To Do.

Like the preacher who gets a sweetheart deal from a local realtor and a powerful business man, the preacher is happy to accept the giant house. Or the Official who gets his Son jobs for La Famile. And the people who help him do the deal introduce the MECHANISM for corruption to him. He keeps getting re-elected, and he has been around a long time, so a METHOD is devised to trigger the mechanism.

Psychologically, IT GOES DOWN EASY.

Human Guilt is deep within us. The deep psychological issue is getting corruption to go down easy. The Food we eat and the Drink we drink, should be pleasant as you open your throat. You don't want to be gagging because of some silly misguided sense of guilt or responsibility.

Who Cares About Rome?- A For All Ages Seven Step Recipe For A Corruption Stew

Just take some sweat and blood and create a broth of other people's money, then add:

1) Arrogant leadership

"I am getting mine". "I deserve it. It's my turn." "I told them what they needed to hear to get me in, now I am not obligated to anyone, now that I am in power." No matter the century, this is always a sign of decay. Corruption and Decay go together.

2) The Loss of a Middle Class

The economic engine and also the tax payers and employers, those who made the country work back when it was new and idealistic, are now dwindling. This tells you times are going to get worse,

3) Lust for power

The spoils system means that all my buddies get their share. Its the way of the world. Let's figure out legal ways to spread the people's wealth to all of our friends and relatives. This creates "rolling corruption" - self perpetuating systems for wealth and privilege acquisition.

4) Greed

When every "little man" stops aspiring to traditional values or working hard and having a home and achieving measurable small steps to success, and grabs onto the "lottery ideal" - they call it making a killing. An unfortunate, but meaningful phrase.

5) Excessive Taxation

Being punished for growing is one of the simplest and most direct ways of creating a nanny state. Everyone starts seeing the "dole" as a way that one could possible live, and stay respectable.

6) General Societal and Legal WINKING -

What would have been condemned becomes accepted as we "wink" - overlook - the corruption and make it unofficially "legal". "Winking" becomes very important to this process. It affects "group consciousness". It is the nonverbal way that we feel.

7) Then we Refuse To Think, We React -

(Do Nothing, Selective Outrage and Lack of Prosecution) about the corruption. The next steps have to do with convulsive, dramatic, sometimes revolutionary, but always uncomfortable -- change.

Winking and Not Thinking - Down The Hog Fat Slope of Sloppy Surrender

We just wink and refuse to think. "Repent" coming from the Greek phrase "metanoia", which literally means a change of mind. Metanoia requires consciousness. If corruption is below our radar consciously, then a metanoia can be avoided.

Legally Drunk on the Wine of Corruption - No "Blood Corruption Content" and no GUI

It is very important to understand that the ACTUAL LEGAL STANDARDS seldom change. The dusty books don't get pocket parts added to them, making corruption legal; Governing Under the Influence. That is why corruption is so darned appealing.

The More Slick and Sophisticated The Corruption the More Powerful

The modern western democracies are holding themselves to high standards. Witness their law books. Witness their pretense to ethics. Witness their long-winded speeches about standards of morality. Witness the sanctimonious preachments about corruption.

When the Curtain Gets Pulled on the Wizard

Watch the news. When corruption actually becomes a part of the headlines, all kinds of noise blares into the CNN World of saturated air waves. This is where the sophistication comes in. Defenses build up like a cancerous run away tumor. "It's an over reach on the part of the prosecutor." When the Wizard of Oz gets the curtain pulled by the little dog Toto, he doesn't stop his bluster, he just figures out a way of explaining his conduct. Always claim innocence of course. The trial gets swallowed up in the news.

The Barbarian At The Gate or The Dentist At The Drill

Describing states of corruption leads one to realize that all corruption does not lead to utter societal collapse. The drama of corruption is played out every day around the world, and imminent destruction is not predicted. It's just that corruption and its degree usually indicate the level of societal decay, and societal decay takes remedial action.