Power is a very important thing and people can use their power differently. Power means “ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/power) People with power are usually the president, principle, boss, parents, teachers, etc. They have power over other people and they can use this power in a good way or they can corrupt their power. Corrupt means “guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/corrupt). When they corrupt their power they are abusing it and using it in unfair way.
When people get in power it can corrupt them very easily. It makes them think that they are better than everyone else and that they can control what everyone else does. When a person gets in a position with a lot of power it is hard to resist abusing that power and gaining all the extra stuff. Some people are able to have power and not be corrupted but it is hard not to be corrupted.
A big example of power corrupting people could be if there was a natural disaster somewhere in the world, like Haiti, that nation would not have power. All the other nations that have organizations sending money to Haiti have power over that money. They can take that money that they collected from people for Haiti and not send the money to Haiti. They can just keep it for themselves even though they don’t need the money. This is abusing their power in a terrible way. They lied to all the people who gave them money and they are not helping the nation in need. They probably started out as a good organization but once they had all that money in their hand they couldn’t resist but to keep it.
Another example of someone who was corrupted by power is Hitler. He got his power when he joined the Nazi party and started to become the leader of that. Then Hitler became the chancellor. Power started corrupting him and he used his power for evil. He leaded all the Nazis to kill the Jews and he thought his race was the best race. He abused his power because he thought he was the best. (http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ahitler.html)
There are a lot of examples thought of people who had a lot of power and were not corrupted by it at all. They used all the power they had for good and didn’t start abusing the power. Those people are stronger than people who are corrupted by power. They know that they can get more of what they want and do things unfairly and get more money. But they think of why they are in power in the first place and they just use their power for good and they have a lot of people like them.
Abraham Lincoln was a man with great power but he was not corrupted by it. He became president 1861 and being president comes with a lot of power. He could have easily been corrupted by it with all the money and glory. Also while he was president there was a lot of slavery. Since he had so much power he could have easily gotten many slaves to do things for him since he had so much power. Instead of being corrupted by this power he tried to stop slaves and he was successful. He was a great man who used his power in a great way.( http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln)
So when people ask if power corrupts there really is no real answer. It all depends on who has the power in their hands. The stronger leaders can use their power for good and won’t be corrupted by it. But their also people who are corrupted by the power they have because they want more glory and money. That is why we need to pick our leaders carefully and know which people will not be corrupted by the power.
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