“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.” Lord Acton’s timeless statement is applicable to legal and illegal
power alike, for each is subject to abuse. The victims are those whose wills
are bent through either harm or the threat of injury. Put another way, the
human brain may lack sufficient cognitive, emotional, and perceptual machinery
to check the instinctual plus socialized power-aggrandizing urge. This
vulnerability is particularly apparent in viewing video showing a police
employee violently over-react in a situation that quite obviously should not
have involved violence. Although anger doubtlessly plays a crucial role in the
trigger that unleashes the police violence, the more subtle suspension of
cognition and warping of perception is also in the mix.
The full essay is at “Power and human nature.”
