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Food is literally free
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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Antiwork
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Power doesn't corrupt, capitalism systemically selects for those most willing to act in corrupt means in order to profit more. You have it flipped.
Definitely an interesting take, and one that I might kinda believe!
I do think that concentrated power is still part of the problem, that problem is just exacerbated by the psycho-selection-filter of capitalism.
Democratization can only really happen within the framework of socialism, where collectivized production and distribution is being worked towards. This necessitates distributed responsibilities, but also doesn't conflict with having administration, nor an inherent "corruption of power" at the top. Capitalism selects for it, socialism does not.
I'd extend the thought a bit farther. Poorly designed roadways create bad drivers. Growing up in a household with violence increases the likelihood of that child perpetuating violence when they get older. Selectively bred animals aren't the way they are because of their ideas or some innate feature, they're the way they are because the system in which they exist creates them that way. The environment or system (large or small) has a major impact on the path individuals take.
If concentrated power and corruption is rarely punished and always rewarded, it is a symptom of the system at-large.
If creating cheap products which pollutes the environment makes a company 2 Billion, gets that company fined only 250 Million, essentially it makes it such that continuing polluting is just the cost of doing business. The system is creating the pollution. This specific system also has the side effect of limiting the competitiveness since a small business owner won't initially make 2 Billion and cannot eat the cost of a 250 Million fine. All it does is consolidate power and control towards massive corporations that are supported by the government (since the government removes competition through fines, tariffs, or violence).
I'd argue at this point it doesn't matter which was first because the cycle feeds itself
It absolutely matters, because it means you can have administrative positions without some supernatural corruption.
Power has corrupted long, long before capitalism. Power and corruption are ancient beings.
No, they aren't metaphysical eldtritch gods infecting humans. Corruption existed prior, yes, in systems also designed to protect rule by a small class of people, like feudalism.
Power is like a cursed trinket from fantasy literature/games, where upon picking it up it slowly increases "corruption".
People really do think that way, unfortunately.
Try thinking like this: Having more power means that your decisions, preferences, biases and limitations have more weight. With more weight, you will bulldoze whatever other people want. With all the weight, whatever you say goes. The corruption is a part of the system overruling the rest through no malicious intent.
That's not corruption, though, that's just how administration works. There can absolutely be good reasons for people to have more of a say when it comes to decision making, and these people can be selected democratically or meritocratically.
Good luck convincing others of this take. People really truly believe in some sort of supernatural 'can never possibly resist' corruptive force when it comes to power. As if the idea of a human that has power and isn't corrupted is so much more impossible than all the other fantasy bullshit we've dreamed up. Hell they even had to make Superman an alien just to get people to accept the idea of a good powerful person.
Ultimately, the answer lies in taking a materialist approach to analysis, rather than an idealist stance. Cutting through the supernatural and relying on the material as our frame of reference helps us demystify subjects like "power corrupting."
Lol. Actual religious thinking
Or it's just a creative, figurative way to express a difficult concept.