A short YouTube monologue (by Mark Hamilton) that interprets Lord Acton’s observation—power tends to corrupt—by arguing that modern corruption shows up not in law-breaking but in the continual creation of rules and procedures that entrench power; by contrast, non-corrupt actors remove oppressive rules even at personal cost.
Here's how you know somebody is corrupt. And this is a simple observation that goes back to the historian Lord Acton, who said, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Now, what that means is. Well, you ever notice how the most corrupt people never have to break the law, never take the blame, never face the consequences, because the system always works in their favor? Compare that to someone who doesn't hide behind policies and legal loopholes, someone who doesn't create rules to gain more control, but instead removes the rules that keep others down, even if it means losing power themselves. And so, if you want to know if somebody is corrupt, don't look at whether they break the rules, look at whether they keep making more of them.
