Corruption: Pursuit of power and wealth solely for the purpose of self-gratification.
Are the institutions of a corrupted collective inherently corrupt? I consider humanity a corrupted collective that has managed through the course of history to create institutions that serve no other purpose other than the promotion of exploitation and wealth accumulation. When Nietzsche declared that �God is dead�, he was not referring to the actual physical death of God. He was referring the corruption of spirituality by the churches. Spirituality is a human peculiarity and the most effective method devised to deal with the notion of death and the understanding of the human role in the cosmos. Throughout history this human weakness has been the focus of leaders who devised very simple and effective techniques to trigger and manipulate particular responses from the masses. Nietzsche's argument can be extended not only to churches but all human institutions. The origin of corruption coincides in space and time with the origin of humanity. Charismatic self-proclaimed leaders of initially isolated human communities quickly realized that they can use their influence to maximize their gains. A system of nepotism was eventually established through personal friendships and families. As isolated communities moved closer together, individual society leaders realized that a collective system of government and spirituality must be established in order to avoid conflict. The new method had to be devised in a particular way: maximize profit and power to the leaders and conceive methods for controlling the majority. A class system was therefore established. In addition militaries were also formed whose purpose was and still is two-fold: protection and enforcing.
Kazantzakis in one of his travel memoirs offers a very precise analysis of ancient Egyptian Society. The ruling class in the form of priests and pharaohs used death as the means of manipulating the masses. The pharaoh under the priests� advice elevated himself to the level of a God and warned his subjects that deviations from his worship would lead to condemnation after death. The result was a meticulously maintained master-slave culture. The role of the military was to guard the pharaoh and expand the territory through wars. The slaves in fear of being condemned never rebelled against the establishment but rather cooperated fully. Pharaohs glorified death in the form of the pyramids which where designed by the priests and built by the slaves. Absolute loyalty to the pharaoh guaranteed the slaves a pleasant eternity. That was the motivation. It is not unreasonable to consider the Egyptian pharaohs as mainly symbols of power and the priests as brilliant holders of the power who devised an ingenious method for controlling the masses while at the same time pursuing an understanding of the universe through astronomy, and of the human body through elaborate embalmment techniques. The pyramids are thus both objects of perversion and brilliance and will remain forever monuments to the most basic human instincts: pursuit of power and wealth.
Jesus was the first voice of socialism of the ancient world. The ideas that Christianity promoted, solidarity and love, attempted to break down the master-slave system and establish the equality of humans in the eyes of God or the superior being. It was not unexpected then that the opposition would have been fierce. The leader of the movement, Jesus, was eventually crucified, a cruel and unusual punishment reserved only for the worst of criminals. The crucifixion was symbolic and the message was clear. No attempt to break down the established institutions will be tolerated. Christianity though had gathered a lot of followers and the word spread. The disgruntled majority soon realized that eternal happiness can be achieved without having to obey leaders. The first years of Christianity were pure and dynamic until time came for organization. The establishment of the church meant that leaders of the movement would fight for key positions of influence. Corruption was inevitable. Eventually it led to the schism as the church fought for economic and social control of Eastern and Western Europe. During feudalism, the church actually supported the rich land owners while simultaneously receiving and accepting gifts from poor peasants. When the aristocracy stopped paying attention, the bourgeois managed to rally the people behind notions of fraternity and equality and overthrew the noble class. The church allied with the bourgeois. The multiple changes in alliances were simply for survival and maximum gain through the circumstances. Concerning the sincerity of the church as an institution of love and equality I offer the following examples a) consider the amount of wealth that churches possess and consider the percentage of that amount that is given to charity without anything expected in return and b) consider where the leaders of the churches live as they preach that the pursuit of material goods in not in accordance with the teachings.
Any institution whose purpose is not the pursuit of knowledge is inherently corrupt. Exceptions exist but since exceptions are never part of the majority we can deduce that corruption is collective and absolute. Since society operates at a collective and cooperative level, individual honesty is only a small perturbation. The origin of corruption is the inherent lack of human defenses to manipulation. Historically successful manipulation was only achieved by focusing on the lowest common denominator. The statements are usually of the form: �if you do not do this then a) they will kill us b)take our jobs c)you will burn in hell d)they will take our land� etc. Obviously statements of the sort: �You have to do this because a) I will make more money b) I will be able to maintain power c) my friends will get rich� would not work. It is rather amazing that humans have not been able yet to decode this simple form of brainwashing. As Nietzsche so brilliantly declared, God is indeed dead but I would extent the argument that humans are dead and have been dead from the point of their conception.
Fivos R Drymiotis