Corruption - we hear it said of government all the time, and it appears in them ALL to greater or lesser degrees. Exactly how much a national society can bear is hard to calculate, but there are limits. Venezuela has hit the bottom, for instance; Zimbabwe and North Korea are in the running, as well as a lot of the "Stans" that tumbled out of the Soviet Union. In a recent news story, an official in Afghanistan admitted that his country is corrupt from top to bottom - including himself. Certainly a country has hit bottom when corruption is necessary for survival, because everyone else does it.
In my essay on Costa Rica ("Costa Vieja"), I remarked that all of the Latin American countries I have lived in (there are 3, not including the brief trip to Costa Rica), the general population is very aware of corruption at most levels. Right to our south, Mexico stands at the crossroads - a nation of great natural resources and, now, a functioning democracy that is plagued by corruption from the presidency through the police through the military. As with Venezuela in the 1990's, it still functions because there are enough people who believe in honest behavior - but that can easily fail, and all nations, including the USA, should beware.
I was reminded of this last night when we watched the movie, "The Tailor of Panama," with Pierce Brosnan as a corrupt M-6 British spy, and Geoffrey Rush as the honest expat tailor in 1999 Panama, the year Panama officially took charge of the Canal. Rush has a secret he keeps from his wife, an American who works directly under the Panama president. Brosnan exploits this to get info from Rush, who dresses the rich and powerful of Panama City, including the president. As Brosnan, an egotist who gets what he wants, blackmails Rush, Rush feeds him imaginary information to get what he wants - money to keep his wife's farm, and money for his friends who were once tortured in their opposition to the uber-corrupt Manuel Noriega, the pineapple-faced dictator of Panama who was funneling cocaine through Panama and Cuba to the US, and who was summarily removed by a US invasion. Rush is a good guy, willing to sacrifice all for his honest friends (just two) and family, but in his dealings with Brosnan, he is dragged through the streets and brothels of the city, where everyone, it seems, is corrupt. It ends in another US invasion involving money, lies, and theft, leaving only Rush, one friend, and his family intact. Everyone else has been exposed for what they are - corrupt. And, although his life comes back together, the national society at large continues to live in cynicism, poverty, and abuse.
In this blog, I try to find the metaphysical or spiritual in everything, but here it is straightforward: as in Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, we see that moral corruption leads to misery and, finally, to collapse, not just of empires but of individuals. We need no vengeful gods to punish us for moral transgressions, but rather punish ourselves through corruption, much like Hindu karma. It is an absolute moral law that requires no prophet on the mount, and yet, for many, it is still hard to see. Why not cheat the government if it is cheating you, and everyone else is doing it? Why not steal, when you are being stolen from? But, like the characters in "The Sopranos, " corruption breeds corruption: mistrust, back-stabbing, petty jealousy, hatred, and not only a lack of love, but the loss of the ability to love. It leaves good times to intoxication and sex which lead to poor health and/or ennui, a need for bigger and bigger highs that further hurt others and the individual himself.
All this is no secret; it was, after all, one of the US founders who declared that without a moral society, a free democracy would never work. This remains true, and reminds us that, with or without a belief in the transcendent, every one of us is responsible for the other's well- being; if we are not, we will not find it with ourselves, at least not for long. This underlies the foundation of every great religion, of which Jesus said, "love the other as the self.' If not, Hell may not await one after death, but it will come to one or one's descendants sooner rather than later. It is a fact that is so simple, known by most, but so easily forgotten when one domino falls, and then the other, and then all of them in the last panicked, corruption-filled attempt at survival. FK
In my essay on Costa Rica ("Costa Vieja"), I remarked that all of the Latin American countries I have lived in (there are 3, not including the brief trip to Costa Rica), the general population is very aware of corruption at most levels. Right to our south, Mexico stands at the crossroads - a nation of great natural resources and, now, a functioning democracy that is plagued by corruption from the presidency through the police through the military. As with Venezuela in the 1990's, it still functions because there are enough people who believe in honest behavior - but that can easily fail, and all nations, including the USA, should beware.
I was reminded of this last night when we watched the movie, "The Tailor of Panama," with Pierce Brosnan as a corrupt M-6 British spy, and Geoffrey Rush as the honest expat tailor in 1999 Panama, the year Panama officially took charge of the Canal. Rush has a secret he keeps from his wife, an American who works directly under the Panama president. Brosnan exploits this to get info from Rush, who dresses the rich and powerful of Panama City, including the president. As Brosnan, an egotist who gets what he wants, blackmails Rush, Rush feeds him imaginary information to get what he wants - money to keep his wife's farm, and money for his friends who were once tortured in their opposition to the uber-corrupt Manuel Noriega, the pineapple-faced dictator of Panama who was funneling cocaine through Panama and Cuba to the US, and who was summarily removed by a US invasion. Rush is a good guy, willing to sacrifice all for his honest friends (just two) and family, but in his dealings with Brosnan, he is dragged through the streets and brothels of the city, where everyone, it seems, is corrupt. It ends in another US invasion involving money, lies, and theft, leaving only Rush, one friend, and his family intact. Everyone else has been exposed for what they are - corrupt. And, although his life comes back together, the national society at large continues to live in cynicism, poverty, and abuse.
In this blog, I try to find the metaphysical or spiritual in everything, but here it is straightforward: as in Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, we see that moral corruption leads to misery and, finally, to collapse, not just of empires but of individuals. We need no vengeful gods to punish us for moral transgressions, but rather punish ourselves through corruption, much like Hindu karma. It is an absolute moral law that requires no prophet on the mount, and yet, for many, it is still hard to see. Why not cheat the government if it is cheating you, and everyone else is doing it? Why not steal, when you are being stolen from? But, like the characters in "The Sopranos, " corruption breeds corruption: mistrust, back-stabbing, petty jealousy, hatred, and not only a lack of love, but the loss of the ability to love. It leaves good times to intoxication and sex which lead to poor health and/or ennui, a need for bigger and bigger highs that further hurt others and the individual himself.
All this is no secret; it was, after all, one of the US founders who declared that without a moral society, a free democracy would never work. This remains true, and reminds us that, with or without a belief in the transcendent, every one of us is responsible for the other's well- being; if we are not, we will not find it with ourselves, at least not for long. This underlies the foundation of every great religion, of which Jesus said, "love the other as the self.' If not, Hell may not await one after death, but it will come to one or one's descendants sooner rather than later. It is a fact that is so simple, known by most, but so easily forgotten when one domino falls, and then the other, and then all of them in the last panicked, corruption-filled attempt at survival. FK
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