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Comment by Jerry2 | Hacker News Reader

I'm pretty much the same. I used to believe in gov and rule of law but when you see how many criminals get off and how selective all these agencies are in whom they prosecute, I am disgusted at how corrupt the whole system has become.

>Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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"Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it ... We should grant power over our affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase that reluctance."

-- Frank Herbert

But Herbert was also speaking in a context of a rigid social structure. Any leader came not from the masses but an elite social class, royal houses. Even those that seemed to come from the masses inevitably would turn out to be elites in hiding. Or they would quickly step aside to make room for someone of better blood. So the wisdom of the quote is that if one must choose between two princes, the prince that does not want power should ascend over his ambitious brother. It does not mean looking for leaders amongst the lower orders.

Don't worry, leaders who came from the masses get corrupted by the power all right. Both Stalin and Hitler came from quite unprivileged families.

(Godwin law, yadda yadda, but the examples are directly applicable here.)

And then those who are reluctant delegate or are cornered to delegate to bastards.

This quote don't carry us very far.

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