Click here for audio: |
Can there be a "Good" Archist?
The British historian Lord Acton put it this way:
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
The exercise of political power is problematic. We should assume that "great men" -- that is, powerful men -- men who wield "the sword," that is, the compulsory force of "the government" -- are morally corrupt. Bad men, not good men. This assumption should be considered confirmed if he increases his own power during his time of "public service."