quote: Petty said the research casts doubt on the classic assertion that power corrupts people and leads them to negative actions. Instead, what power does is make people more likely to unquestionably believe their own thoughts and act on them, he said.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Pfffh, I don't believe it.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
Sounds like one solution is to make sure people in power understand their limitations, so they aren't always in their power-crazed mode.
Posted by Tara (Member # 10030) on :
Sounds true to me.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
The solution is to make sure we put morons who realize that they're morons in powerful positions.
It's such a minor change from the current system, but it would reap so many benefits.
Posted by Tarrsk (Member # 332) on :
Of course, if the study is correct, then those morons will, upon attaining power, immediately start to believe that they aren't morons.
Clearly, the only way to avoid this is to put morons in power who don't realize that they're in power. Couch potatoes for Secret President!
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I guess it depends on one's definition of corruption. To say that these findings don't constitute corruption is to say that things like ambition and self-interest are non-corrupt.
Most of the stuff people complain about Bush seem to fall in line with this.
P.S. I ran across this in a Chicago Reader article that someone had linked to:
quote:Rappers usually have about ten good years in them before they fall off and start complaining about how they get no respect from the new school,
[ March 08, 2008, 01:35 PM: Message edited by: pooka ]
Posted by Luv2ReadProductions (Member # 11502) on :
The article was interesting.
Was it just me, or did the actual study seem a little weak? The participants were roleplaying positions of power, but what power did they actually weild?
Did they truly have the sense that their opinions of the phones mattered somehow?
Posted by Papa Janitor (Member # 7795) on :
<Disagrees with premise, locks thread.>
Alternately,
quote:The solution is to make sure we put morons who realize that they're morons in powerful positions.
Works for me.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote: Clearly, the only way to avoid this is to put morons in power who don't realize that they're in power.
Douglas Adams beat you to that one. Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Better solution that depends less on the person in control: When someone assumes a position of power, they must keep a red phone on their desk...only it doesn't go to the Kremlin, it goes to their mothers, and they HAVE to answer it when it rings.
At the very least, if they continue to make stupid decisions, they'll feel guilty about it later.
Posted by Magson (Member # 2300) on :
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: The solution is to make sure we put morons who realize that they're morons in powerful positions.
It's such a minor change from the current system, but it would reap so many benefits.
Didn't the ancient Ethiopian empire of Axum's emperor have a slave whose job it was to follow the emperor around and insult him and mock his decisions, in order to remind said emperor that the difference between him being in power and the slave was about 2 feet of space between them?
Or was that just a made up thing in a book I read?
![[Smile]](smile.gif)