Corruption weakens democracy – myRepublica – The New York Times Partner, Latest news of Nepal in English, Latest News Articles | + Opinion

During the Gettysburg Address in 1863, Abraham Lincoln stated that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” He must have thought democracy to be the best political system in the world. Albert Camus, a French philosopher trusted democracy to be the protection of the minority. For Harry Fosdick, democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. If Lincoln, Camus, and Fosdick were alive today, they would probably be extremely disappointed to learn that democracy is in an acute crisis as it has failed to deliver on its promises.

Source: Corruption weakens democracy – myRepublica – The New York Times Partner, Latest news of Nepal in English, Latest News Articles

Opinion:

Does corruption weaken democracy or given our fallible human nature is corruption simply an unavoidable component of democracy?

Every democracy has problems. Even the ancient Greeks had problems. Their democracy didn’t include women or slaves. Nor did the earliest forms of American democracy. Canada abolished slavery before the USA but still didn’t give the full vote to women and indigenous people until later.

How fair was that?

Today, statistics suggest that the rich and well-connected enjoy an entirely different kind of justice than the poor and marginalized—unless you are Harvey Weinstein, who has been singled out with a tremendous amount of hate.

Hollywood is making an example of Weinstein. Even the fact that he uses a walker has been ridiculed:

The Truth About Harvey Weinstein’s Walker

Whether he needs assistance or not, the image can influence jurors and reinforce harmful stereotypes of people with disabilities.

The insinuation of the words I’ve hyperlinked is that Weinstein is such a bad dude that he might be faking it for sympathy.

How fair is that?

I mean, if I ridiculed an old lady at church for using a walker, how would that fly?

But for Weinstein, it’s okay to ridicule him on just about anything. He’s the big bad guy. Or so Hollywood and the media would have us believe.

In reality, the bad guys are far more numerous than scapegoats like Harvey Weinstein. Heck, rotten apples might be right next door or across the street.

I’ve noticed that many Americans (and others around the world) love to build people up and then tear them down.

OJ, Michael Jackson…

The drama.

Americans are good at drama. Just witness the Academy Awards last night. Canadians could never pull off a show like that. The Oscars are a true spectacle – in the sociological sense of the word – with amazing scope and grandeur. Our national entertainment awards always come off thin and hollow. And winning Canadian stars often don’t bother show because they’re too busy in the US or elsewhere. We’re lucky to get a ‘video thanks’ if anything at all, which is pretty sad!

But I digress.

As bad as Weinstein’s behavior may have been, super bad dudes are everywhere and scapegoating a few does little to solve the problem of systemic corruption, organized crime, abuse, and violence.

And so I ask: Is corruption a sickness or an unavoidable aspect of democracy?

I don’t have the answers but it does seem that in some countries you pretty well have to be corrupt to be (or own) anything in society, whereas in the US and Canada you can still ‘make it’ without a grim initiation ritual like truncating and disposing of body parts in plastic bags.

But I fear that with the unprecedented influx of Central and Eastern European operators (no, I’m not so worried about China), we’re moving in the direction of the plastic bags. And that is scary, indeed.

So maybe the above article, despite its academic naivety, does make a point.

We should never give up trying to be good, to be better. And that means both the clean and the kreaminals.

The one thing we all share is our humanity and the fact that God created each and every one of us.

Let’s focus on that instead of our differences. Then maybe, just maybe our world will emerge at least halfway sane… which is always better than completely insane.