I posted this a few weeks back in my old blog before I decided to abandon that blog. But I kind of like that post, so that's why I'm re-posting it here:
It is a truism of libertarians and conservatives of many stripes that "power corrupts, absolute power corrupt absolutely".
That quote by Lord Acton is pretty much their favorite quote of all time.
But Lord Acton and the libertarians got it backwards.
It's not that 'power corrupts', but that corrupt people seek power. (And sometimes succeed)
It's not that 'absolute power corrupts absolutely', but that absolutely corrupt people seek absolute power. (And sometimes succeed)
No comments:
Post a Comment