[T.B. Yoits]

It’s not that “power corrupts”. It is “immunity from consequences” which truly corrupts.

I don't know if you truly appreciate the truth, wisdom, and insight of that statement.

[SauronOfMordor]

Re: immunity corrupts

John Campbell, science fiction author and editor of Analog magazine, wrote an editorial in the subject back in 1970, which unfortunately is not available online. His reasoning stayed with me.

https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell

His main point was that it was not power which corrupted. You have people who have enormous power, who are not corrupted, because they are accountable to other people over how they use that power.

Conversely, you can have very little real power, and yet be a force for evil from what little you have, IF you are absolutely immune from consequences. This describes many of our criminal classes who go through life not facing consequences which they would find unacceptable.

We have a crime epidemic because career criminals do not see themselves facing unacceptable consequences.

Similarly, we have a border crisis because illegal aliens face no real consequences for trying to get across, or at least no consequences which they see as worse than having to stay in Mexico.

We could make illegal crossings cease immediately by simply declaring that illegal crossers are considered invaders, and shooting a bunch of them, leaving the bodies as a warning.