The Corrupt Society by Robert Payne published by Praeger Publishers, NY 1975. The strength of cultures, and their weakness cannot be measured exactly by any known measuring rods. We simply do not know how much residual strength lies in a culture when it is confronted by a powerful enemy determined to destroy it.

The five faces of corruption are old age, conquest, tyranny, treachery and subversion, and clash of cultures. Before describing the faces, there are many weapons that can be used to prevent the corruption of societies. The most powerful are vigilance and knowledge. Some of this will be through the press but it is important there is a free flow of information (the internet helps) for in the words of Tomas Paine: Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.  The least corrupt societies are those that are the most open, where the responsibility is shared among all the people, where there is no privileged class and there no vast differences in wealth. Corruption enters as soon as the government is managed on behalf of special interests against the interests of the people. Once corrupt it is very hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

1. Corruption by Old Age

Society lives on past glories, celebrates its ancient arts, but the words spoken are the same as the past hundreds of years. If you are living on past glories, you are not looking at the new. What could be? Opening the window for air to breathe and the life of the people worth living again. If the people are not looking towards the future, the society may continue to function but one day someone will change it.

2. Corruption by Conquest

In many countries, a strong ruler was in place and did good, however he (it tended to be a male) left no natural rulers or the country is both weak and divided against itself. The normal pattern the country breaks up. A political structure can tolerate and absorb an almost limitless amount of petty corruption. It cannot tolerate and absorb the corruption of the spirit that comes about when the conquerors assume the role of masters and conquered accept the role of the servants. What tends to happen is the masters begin to believe they are the masters; the servants know if they can retain their sense of identity they can outlast the masters.

3. Corruption by Tyranny

When a country has either surrender to a tyrant or been tricked into granting him full powers, the process of corruption begins. The tyrant ruling by decree, sooner or later finds out his decrees are based on a small amount of information available to reflect the situation. The people around him know even less and misinformation is the norm because the leader is a tyrant. The concentration of power in a single man chokes the off the best energies of the nation; all must be subservient to him and the power he seized is used to maintain him in power. If money corrupts, vast sums of money corrupts vastly.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as shareholders we elect Boards of Directors who elect Presidents to run the company. How well they are open to process, how the President runs the company is important. We must be willing to ensure the company beside making money has a reasonably open process.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.