2. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely."- Lord Acton
The rest of this quote reads, "Great men are almost always bad men." This quote arose in the 19th century in a very opinionated letter that Lord Acton wrote to Bishop Mandell Creighton to express his thoughts on the power given to absolute monarchs. The rest of the quote reads, "Great men are almost always bad men."
I take this quote mean that one who is given total authority is more than likely to abuse it, no matter how decent of a person they were prior to. Although I do see what Lord Acton was getting at when he said this, I do not necessarily agree with him. I believe that power and absolute power is more revealing than it is absolutely corruptive. In other words, all human beings have evil inside of us. We just need to placed under the right circumstances in order to bring them out. That is why, for example, babies know how to lie as soon as they know how to talk. This type of situation occurred when my younger brother was 3 years old. One day, he picked up my mom's glasses and broke them in half. My mom saw the entire thing, but when she asked him if he did it he said "no" and pointed at me to suggest that I broke them instead. Of course, he got in trouble for breaking the glasses but my mom was very baffled that at just 3 years old, he already knew how to lie. However, she later realized that it's because he was born with the capacity to do wrong already in his heart. It is the environment that a person is consistently around and the values that is instilled in oneself that determines whether the innate wrongdoing that one is born with will prevail in the future.
Another great example that can be taken into account is the Stanford Prison Experiment. This was a psychological study of the effects of becoming a prisoner versus a prison guard. College students at Stanford University volunteered to participate and were given the role of either a prisoner or a prison guard. Much to psychology professor Philip Zimbardo's surprise, the volunteers adapted to the roles very easily; so much so that the experiment had to be stopped early because it was getting out of hand. To make a long story short, those who played the prison guards enforced their authority to the highest degree, since they were given no limits. Ultimately, they subjected the prisoners to psychological torture, while the prisoners passively accepted the abuse and even, at the request of the guards, physically and verbally harassed other prisoners who were also powerless. In this situation, if Lord Acton's quote held true, this would also mean that those who are powerless become pure. However, this was not the case. Therefore, there is some flaw in Lord Acton's quote.
With regards to Macbeth, Shakespeare most likely would not agree with the quote, either. In the very beginning of the play, the three witches recite at the end of Act I, " Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (Shakespeare, 1.1). On the surface, one could say that they believe the things most men consider to be foul and ugly are just and beautiful to them because they embody evil. However, the deeper meaning of this quote could be that everything is not what it seems. It points to the discrepancy of appearance versus reality: the difference between how someone seems and how someone really is. With reference to the character of Macbeth, Shakespeare makes Macbeth seem like a decent person until the three witches prophecy to him that he will become Thane of Cawdor, and eventually King of Scotland. From that point on, Macbeth progressively turns into a malicious murderer because he thinks it is the inevitable thing to do to make the prophecy come true, especially since he most likely would not have been named Thane of Cawdor by King Duncan if the former one had not committed treason and consequently been killed. Shakespeare attempts to comment that Macbeth always had malice in his heart, but it was not exposed, to himself or to everyone else until he was put in a powerful position.
Conclusively, these examples prove that power is a source of exposure rather than a source of corruption. All people are innately evil but then are taught how to suppress their evil with good.
P.S. The remind text Mrs. Genesky sent with the "Ferris" joke was sent while I was in the middle of typing this. Coincidence or nah?
I think you did a good job with this Brea. I never would have considered the deeper meaning you found in the quote from the witches had I not read this. I also really found the second example about the experiment at Stanford interesting. It makes me curious how much a person is affected by situations they are placed in. I personally think like you said, the way a person is raised impacts how they react in certain situations. For example when my eldest brother was in high school he did't care about school at all, but when he was on his own in college his education became very important to him. This is because he was raised by parents who held education as very important. I feel that people react based on their upbringing and that for some people it takes longer for the way they were raised to show than others.I agree that everyone has some level of evil in them, but some have more than others. I would argue though that if someone is given absolute power there will be abuse regardless of the persons upbringing in order to test the extent of their power.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was fascinating. I loved your interpretation of the witches' quote and that you brought in both personal and historical examples to support your argument. I agree with Brandon because I also believe that absolute power and abuse go hand in hand, however I think that your argument was well supported and written. Great job.
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