Does Power Corrupt?
Opinion
By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee
Courtesy both traditional means of communication and social media we are swamped with news and information coming from all over the world, much of it rather depressing. We thus learn about corruption perpetrated by the high and mighty, by those who wield power, especially political power, though most times we forget that there is a corruptor and a corrupted.
Conventional wisdom holds that ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Going against this grain, however, Osho also known as Rajneesh proposed, in his book ‘Power, Politics and Change,’ that ‘those who seek power are already corrupt,’ according to the blurb on the back cover of the book. ‘Once they attain their goal, their corruption simply has the opportunity to express itself. That’s why even those who seek power to bring about radical change so often fail, despite their best intentions.’
From the Hindu philosophical perspective human beings are born with three psycho-mental tendencies, namely sattva which is about goodness, purity, balance; rajas, which is about ambition, passion, activity; and tamas, which is about inertia, sloth, dark thoughts. Each individual has a variable mix of these three tendencies, usually with one predominating. Read More… Become a Subscriber
Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 28 June 2024
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