Political Corruption

In my opinion, yes, political power (in most cases) does corrupt those who attain it. When we look back into history, our thoughts pass by infamous leaders like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. These two notorious leaders provide this topic with perfect examples as to why or how political power corrupted those who attain it. Adolf Hitler served his country in World War One before gaining interest into politics of Germany.  His experience in war started to gain him support from his people before ever becoming chancellor of Germany. Once chancellor of Germany, the ambition for more power gets to him, leading to a campaign to take over Germany by making promises of a better country. It heads downfall from there. After becoming head of state of Germany, he changes into a whole different character, likely from this ambition for political power, and starts another World War that takes even more casualties than the last one. Hitler single handedly destroyed the lives of many of his home country and others around the world. His ambition for more power eventually led to corruption. Another example is former president George W. Bush. He ran for office bringing hope of a better America. Instead, he left the country to deal with two wars, over a trillion dollars in debt, and a troubling economy all in eight years.

I think that George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm, would answer this question similarly. His reason for writing this book was to show the message that political power does corrupt those who attain it and about the many different forms of political nonsense such as dictatorship (in the book’s case, the farmer Mr. Jones is the dictator).

In the book, Animal Farm, a meaningful quote in the book that signifies the corruption of political power reads as follows:

“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself” (Chapter 1)

The leader of the animal is leading a plan for a rebellion against their leader (Mr. Jones) so that they can control the power that occurs around the farm. The leader, who dies not too long after his announcement, has started an ambition for power by the animals of the farm that will eventually lead to corruption and downfall.