Pondering Power and Corruption

The current rash of major corruption and scandals tends to take some of the fun out of scandal monitoring. Apart from the fact that these affairs rock the foundations of our political structures, the facts and the consequences are almost too great to easily absorb.
When a large government or business entity is caught up in corruption it invariably involves a superabundance of issues. In turn, these outfits have the resources to obfuscate and create diversions. It might all come out in the end, but it is a tedious process.
Give me a good straight forward Blunkett style scandal any day; the British know how to do these things.
Personally I enjoy delving into the mechanics of the ‘planning department’, or local government type misconduct. They are invariably grounded in base human motive, delivering a chewable level of detail and revelation. Perhaps even a little ‘there but for fortune’.
But how do you personally relate to the far reaching machinations at national government levels? We don’t even speak the same language as these people, and we certainly don’t have their ability to continually massage the language to suit the needs.If you were caught with your hand in the till, or you private parts where they shouldn’t be, do you think the media would run with your gloss and spin? Not bloody likely! The little guy is fair game, and it is the journalists who will be constructing the epithets for them.
The sad part is that we are led to believe that we are governed in trust, that we delegate the duties of government to those we elect.
One problem with that idea is that there are far more ‘unelected’ influences on those we elect. Another is obviously the massive temptation, when handling such large issues, cash and power.
Democracies invariably grew out of older style authority systems. Perhaps it can be said that the uplifting language of democracy is little more than sop to compliant populations.
The Magna Carta wasn’t written with the rights and freedom of ordinary people in mind. It was intended, solely, to devolve power to the land holding barons in Britain. Any benefit to the rest of the population didn’t even begin till centuries later.
Equally the US Constitution foresaw the problems of trusting ordinary folk to choose a president. That is why they have the Electoral College, to make sure the ‘right’ sorts of men are chosen. As for the rest of the document, that is continually at the mercy of a partisan justice system for interpretation.
Those in government have rarely ever given up their ‘proprietary’ feeling towards their role. They own the government so no one else really matters. Unless or until that ownership is challenged, then we get more uplifting words to remind us of why we should surrender any rights to the various contenders.
Until democracy matures, and the ruling elites accept the full responsibility of their charge, grand corruption is going to be the price of government. Now petty corruption, that should remain to entertain for as long as the sun shines down on us