Lord Acton, something, something, corrupts absolutely:
Power selects for a specific personality type, and it is not yours.
F.A. Hayek spelled this out in 1944. In a centrally planned system, the people who rise are not the most competent or the most honest. They are the most willing to exercise force against strangers, the most comfortable with contradiction, and the most skilled at coalition-building through favors rather than merit. Government filters for the bad ones from the start.
The mechanism is straightforward. Political power means controlling resources you did not earn. Capturing that control requires outcompeting rivals who have no ethical constraints. A principled candidate refuses to promise contradictory things to different voter blocs. An unprincipled one does it without blinking. The unprincipled one wins. Repeat this selection pressure across hundreds of electoral cycles and you get the U.S. Congress in 2026: a body where the average member has held office for over a decade, raised millions from interested parties, and delivered almost nothing measurable to the people who voted for them.
Bureaucracy compounds the problem. Once entrenched, state agencies attract people who want authority without accountability. You cannot fire most of them. The FDA, the TSA, the Federal Reserve all function this way, staffed by individuals whose career advancement depends on expanding the agency’s reach, never on serving you efficiently.
[…] THEY CRAVE POWER LIKE A MISER CRAVES WEALTH: Those who are attracted to power are the ones least capable of using it wisely. […]
Pingback by Instapundit » Blog Archive » THEY CRAVE POWER LIKE A MISER CRAVES WEALTH: Those who are attracted to power are the ones least — October 5, 2026 @ 02:31
All of the above applies to STATISM, not to a government system where “power” aka FORCE is limited to the DEFENSE of the individual’s MONOPOLISTIC right to his OWN life and his OWN effort from EVERYONE (including the State) who seeks to treat the individual as their PROPERTY, to be disposed of as THEY see fit, to satisfy THEIR desires.
In other words, ONLY a government which DOES treat the individual as its PROPERTY attracts those who WANT to treat the individual as THEIR PROPERTY. Or put more simply, a State which LEGALIZES rape “filters” for RAPISTS. But a State which OUTLAWS rape “filters” for those who HATE rape and will FIGHT tooth and nail to STOP it. PRETENDING there can ONLY be States which LEGALIZE rape – aka the VIOLATION of rights – is WHY you ONLY get people who RAPE and is WHY they ALL squabble over the ‘best’ WAY to RAPE (aka the ‘best’ way to dispose of their human PROPERTY).
Stop WHINING about the COMPETITION over WHO knows ‘best’ how to use the FORCE of government to VIOLATE human beings and instead vociferously demand that the VIOLATION of rights be OUTLAWED for everyone – including the State.
Comment by Rad4Cap — October 5, 2026 @ 03:56
They know where the bodies are buried
Comment by Eltee — October 5, 2026 @ 07:35