I’d have a lot less of a problem with some of these federal agencies if they’d prosecute the criminals in their own ranks.
I think my slide into cynicism regarding humans who achieve power, regardless of their stated political philosophies and alignments, started after finishing "The Dictator's Handbook". I read here some posts advocating getting rid of this or that, or saying we should do it "this way", but even though I agree in a wishful kind of way, it's just not how human beings are wired... No matter how virtuous a system may be, it seems to take only the inevitable one or two odd instances of corruption to start the rot that will bring it down.
This seems to be based on the premise that there could ever be a system that was somehow perfectly free or corruption to begin with.
I think that’s far fetched. I think all human systems are messy and are going to contain some instances of corruption.
The question is simply whether the level of corruption reaches the level that cancels out the benefits of the system as a whole, or not.
I like to think of it as wishful thinking. I fantasize about winning the lottery, too.
>> The question is simply whether the level of corruption reaches the level...
Yeah, agreed. I couldn't point to a single instance where an attempt to eliminate corruption did not eventually spawn unintended (bad) consequences. Working to manage it seems to be the best alternative.
But hey, let’s cross that bridge when we get there.