The Normalisation of Corruption

It is a sad reflection and indictment on human society that everywhere we look today there is corruption to such an extent that it is considered ‘normal’ and no big deal.

The UK recently voted for a Prime Minister who is factually known to regularly lie, mislead and whose misdemeanours would have previously rendered him unsuitable for such a position, or if discovered after the event, would result in resignation. The days of politicians resigning for being involved in corrupt and unethical or immoral acts seem few and far between these days on either side of the Atlantic or the Irish Sea – the approach being to ride out the storm and just keep going. The plethora of lies from the mouths of politicians is totally sickening – the supremacy that says, ‘I can say whatever I want with no accountability or responsibility and because I think you are stupid enough to believe every word I say.’ Even within just one short week of victory, promises are being broken and reneged upon as the newly delivered power delivers a licence to basically ‘do as I please no matter what I said before’ and irrespective of the consequences.

Politics is just one sphere but there are many more. Everyone knows the media as a whole is corrupt even though there are pockets of true journalists acting and reporting with integrity. Even the apparent bastion of impartiality, the BBC, was well exposed in its lack of impartiality in this election. When videos are being doctored and news manufactured to construct a particular narrative, rather than report the facts, then who or what are we to believe? Whilst many people will say, ‘you can’t believe what you read in the papers/hear on the news’ – we still buy the papers and listen to the news! Imagine if we all voted with our feet and stopped buying papers and watching the news until some honesty and integrity is restored? But we don’t.

Corruption in politics and media is not new, indeed they perhaps lead the way in the professions where corruption is now just accepted, normalised, no big deal – it’s just the way it is.

But what about the other professions, which traditionally were lauded and respected and held in high esteem? Sadly, they too have fallen prey to the corruption bug.

We only have to read the stories of the ‘Secret Barrister’ who tells it as it is from inside the legal profession, to see that the legal system is not about truth and justice – it is a game, an expensive game in more ways than one, where winning at any cost is the prize. Lives and reputations of decent honest people can be ruined, criminality can be sanctioned and perpetrators go unpunished, and what one might consider to be ‘unbelievable’ becomes reality.

Undoubtedly, as there is within each profession, there are those who have done and do work with a true intent, but when taken as a whole, as a system, the stench of corruption is all too apparent. Corruption here does not just apply to dodgy practices of course, but is much deeper – it is the corruption of the true purpose of law that smells so vile, where truth is relegated to the dustbin.

Of course, then there is my own profession of medicine and sadly we too are tainted by corruption, greed, scientific misconduct and supremacy. The whole field of evidence based medicine has been called out for its many biases, flawed research, sponsored science, and corrupt practices. Again, like the law, the corruption here is not just in the obvious ways just mentioned but is the corruption of the true purpose and understanding of medicine that sees it narrowed into a reductionist approach to life and the human body, devoid of the understanding of who we truly are and the true science and art of healing. The supremacy that excludes all other disciplines and ways of knowing about the body and life that have not been sanctioned by a reductionist scientism approach.

So much corruption – it permeates every sphere of life it seems with no profession untainted. I have only mentioned a few here but many more could be added to the list. Why is this so? What is the root of all this corruption?

 

We accept this corruption and choose this corruption because we have all been corrupted to believe we are less than who we truly are, and in some cases not just less, not just not good enough, but unlovable, unworthy, evil sinners or some similar version thereof. How we see ourselves, what we believe to be true about ourselves, even if it is ultimately lies, influences our behaviours and our choices.

It becomes all too easy to see how the quaking insecure little boy strives to become  ‘somebody’,  and seeks power and prestige, perhaps as Prime Minister or President, because their inner sense of self has been so negated and corrupted they have no idea who they truly are and they have to bolster their sense of self and self-importance by any means possible – often via the use money, sex, power or any combination thereof.

 

 

When we accept we have all been corrupted by a false understanding of who we are, and who and what God is, we can perhaps be open to considering there is another way. A way that is founded upon the truth that God is love and we are love, that shows us how to live in a way that is truly loving of ourselves and all others equally, a way that is void of corruption in all its forms and sniffs out the least stench of it in the way we move, speak, think, act or express. What a different world that would be.