Corruption is a term thrown about, almost always by Johnny Average, in accusatory tones at political figures and the oft-hated "wealthy". He is the shining example, the apex exemplar of the man pitching stones in the shabbily constructed glass house of his daily reality. The one person at whom he will never direct his wilting gaze of open contempt is the one he sees when standing before the bathroom mirror.
And yet, it is to every class of rot and tragedy in the human world that he contributes his quantum crumbs of decay, the summing of which across every Johnny on the earth breaks the camel's back such that we end up with the world as we now see it.
Though I repeat myself, the substance of the following work bears repetition that the noses of all the Johnnies may enjoy the odors of that to which they have so fully contributed with their own forms and degrees of self-same corruptions which they so eagerly affix to others.
Corruption the First: fear.
Those who embrace pretty slavery do so largely out of the cowardice that arises from fear. They fear the unpredictability of non-coerced life, which is often heavy with risk. It terrifies them, and so they are willing to subject themselves to pretty slavery, waiving in principle all their rights, however tacitly, in exchange for the lie that is "security".
In all this, of course, play the elements of avarice, ignorance, and lassitude.
Wanting the proverbial "free lunch" is perhaps the most common of all human corruptions. "I want all the benefits of what I believe to be freedom without having to bear neither the costs nor other burdens of becoming free and remaining that way.
Pursuant to human avarice, which is Corruption the Second, and the fear it drives, and which complementarily drives it, we have willful ignorance, Corruption the Third. A man's drive to such ignorance allows him to rationalize his other failings and the rotten choices to which they lead him, and by virtue of its drag, pull innocent third-parties right along with him.
And so with the mutually reinforcing Four Corruptions of humanity, we humans have statistically sold our souls to the devil for the sake of outright lies and mountains of bullshit that tell us we can at no cost that which always commands a price. It is when rot settles into the human soul - the rot of fear, avarice, ignorance, and lassitude, that tyrants are set free to do nearly anything they please. The technology-enabled horrors of the twentieth century stand as witness to, and proof of just how depraved the human animal is willing to become for the sake of getting what he thinks he wants, no matter who gets hurt.
This is why actual, risk-laden, proper freedom - the kind that demands courage, generosity, intellect, and industriousness of a man - is almost universally unpopular in the human world. What the vast and overwhelming majority really want is pretty slavery, which is the illusion of freedom that veils the rotten heart of the tyrant's pleasure, no matter how appealing the positive conditions may appear at a given time. The fact is, you remain in a cage at someone else's whim and caprice, no matter how large, fancily appointed, or gilt.
Humankind chooses slavery over liberty, thereby leaving the tyrants free to shorten the leashes on which all men now live their miserable existences, at any time and in nearly any manner the Whipmasters see fit.
Bring a large predatory cat out of the wild, place it into a cage and see how happily it will live. They prefer risk-laden freedom to comfortable and easy captivity. And in the end, they pace their cages in miserable depression, what is perhaps the most painfully pitiful sight imaginable. And humans actually choose this condition!
Shame on us, every last one. So long as we persist in giving in to our most base impulses, freedom has no hope. Be well and until next time, please accept my best wishes.
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