Hearing the phrase “power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely,” people tend to nod, sagely, in agreement. Everyone knows the quote. Very few know the source of the quote: is it Cicero? Shakespeare? Machiavelli? No. It was Lord Acton, writing a letter,in 1887.
Is the statement actually true? “Corrupt” as an adjective means “utterly broken.” It was first used by Aristotle and later Cicero, who added the ideas of bribery and abandonment of good habits to the general meaning of the word corrupt. History has further added “not abiding by law,” and “out for personal gain by whatever means.” There are subcategories such as “political corruption,” “corporate corruption,” “personal corruption,” and “a culture of corruption.” Clearly this is an issue which is wide-spread and of great concern. Corruption can be said to “gum up the works” in whatever context it occurs: it ruins careers, it causes political systems to go awry, it wastes money or diverts public money into private pockets, it helps fill our prisons.
There is an organization called Transparency International (TI) which rates countries on corruption. As Vice President of the United States, Al Gore made U.S. ratification a top priority at the Global Forum Fighting Corruption in February 1999. But the Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks countries against each other, rated the U.S. 19th in the world in 2012. Specific concerns were campaign financing, lobbyists, bribery, and financial accountability in the political arena. Corporate corruption was not specifically mentioned.
However, the American public has been bombarded with corporate malfeasance during this same period. Numerous bank failures occurred. Games played at Enron with shareowners’ money brought down Enron and (until then) highly regarded Arthur Andersen, the large Chicago accounting firm. Many people lost their jobs, others lost their money or pensions, and the same has been true of every big business which has failed because of mismanagement or dishonesty at the top. CEO’s have considerable power and among their powers is the power to destroy the lives of others. They don’t use bullets, but they can shoot big holes in small bank accounts. Class action suits don’t begin to recompense the losers in these battles.
In my novel “Skyscrapers” I wrote about a deeply corrupt leader in the character of Vern Webb Sr., CEO of Midwest Industries. Vern had an illegal drug-laundering business hidden within his legitimate business. In his company, he alone knew of the illegal activity, yet once it was discovered by the general public, Midwest was effectively ruined. Jobs were lost, the CFO was shot, and Vern went to prison. It’s a tale, we see it too frequently in American business these days, which is why the U.S. ranks 19th in the perception of corruption worldwide.
Niccolo Machiavelli’s book “The Prince” is often thought to a primer for duplicity, cunning, and the exercise of bad faith in politics and other positions of power. But in fact, Machiavelli wrote “the ultimate public interest that the mass of people share is to be secure from the arbitrary interference of others.” This makes the wealthy and powerful the enemies of the common man, in effect, because “whoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.”
In my novel, my other CEO, Eleanora Torquemada Smith, is guilty of the flaw of expediency. She has used others to achieve her success. She has adopted and adapted new techniques as needed, and at the beginning of the novel she is scheming to take over Webb’s business. Ellie missed out on lasting personal relationships because of her single-minded drive to succeed. A close personal relationship can sometimes moderate ambition by questioning motives or means. But most power-hungry people trust only their own opinions. Hubris is their driving force.
Machiavelli made an interesting distinction between ”fame” and “glory.” To attain glory, one must be both brave and good. In his view, Caesar acquired fame as a brave man but missed “the path of glory because ambition perverted his judgment.” This is a harsh view of Caesar, but it is certainly the case with both the CEO’s in “Skyscrapers.” They are brave, no doubt about it. Vern has pulled himself out of the gutter and kicked a drug habit and gotten an education before the story begins. To have made it all the way to the top in business means he is brave and intelligent. But he is irretrievably corrupt. He did not leave the drug business entirely behind because of a familiar fact of American life, “corporate greed.” He wanted to keep the extra money. He liked being a big philanthropist in Powhaten. Who knows how much of that philanthropy came directly from addicted people’s payments to dealers?
Ellie Smith also had to be brave to pull herself out of immigrant poverty, get her education, sidestep pitfalls such as an early romance with Diego Diaz, and finally become CEO of Agribusiness. She only begins to recognize the sterility of her life after she is shot. She starts to reach out and become more sympathetic to the problems of others. She sends money to the children of the woman shot in the church. She accepts the NOW honor because she realizes she is a figurehead and role model, accepting the honor for women of color who have ambition and can succeed. By the end of the book, she has organized “Brotherhood Day,” an all-city celebration, into which she has put considerable personal money. Ambition is no longer perverting her judgment to the same degree as formerly, but she will never go beyond Machiavelli’s definition of “fame.”
Corruption is endemic in human affairs. It derives from flaws in human nature. That is why there must always be informed voters, regulatory agencies and whistle blowers. There would not be a Global Forum on Fighting Corruption or a Corruption Perception Index if there were not a perceived need for such entities. The powerful have the power of good or evil; the majority must function as the informed counterbalance, demanding high moral conduct from those in high places.
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