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Saturday, April 23, 2016

"Power Tends To Corrupt": Acton, Mussolini, Berlusconi, Trump And "La Ley De Herodes"

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It is an enduring problem that "honest people" do not remain honest people when they rise to positions of power. 

At least not very often. 


In this regard, the brilliant Mexican movie, "La Ley de Herodes" ("Herod's Law") is an eyeopener. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221344/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


It is also useful to review Acton's famous "dictum on power" -- "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men" -- an idea that has been "laboratory-tested." 


Check out the context of Acton's quote - The First Vatican Council! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton#Religion_and_writings 


Acton was a Cambridge historian and devout Catholic whose "dictum" was expressed in resistance to "The Doctrine of Infallibility" which was then being discussed -- and some say "ramrodded through" Vatican I. 


Finally... 


When "common folk" -- in Hitler's Germany they were known as die volk -- bind together in political movements they often do so under the banner of "populism" and soon thereafter gravitate toward fascism. Italian history has demonstrated this tendency with Mussolini and (arguably) with Berlusconi.










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