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“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This thought is usually credited to the English Lord Acton who was reflecting on some maneuvers of the medieval papacy, but it goes back very far, naturally, for it does seem to be an abiding truth. Find someone who has power and authority, and it is usual enough to find instances of misuse, mild to severe, individuals to nations. But not always. Sometimes power does not corrupt. Why? Why the usual human practice and why the occasional exception?

The dominating influence in human behavior is self-interest. That is obvious enough; it is a key to survival, but when there is conflict between two self-interests, the one that is able to prevail, the one that has the power to prevail, that one quite naturally does prevail. In general, whether I act consciously or without a thought, it is me first, then you. What form that takes depends on many things. Sometimes it affects but one; sometimes nations tremble. Sometimes the event glides on unnoticed; sometimes there is violent pain and chaos. Either way the strong prevail at the expense of the weak, and one success leads to another. What early in life is tentative and cautious, grows to become dominant and irresistible. That’s the way of it for most human experience. 

It is otherwise, however, when we are guided by the ethic of reciprocity, the Golden Rule. Then we yield, whether with difficulty or without a thought, to the self-interest of the other. Regrettably, human experience clearly shows that the practice is not common enough, and that lord Acton was entirely justified in observing that in life, the usual way is “power corrupts, and . . . ."