Greetings!
In a plaid-carpeted classroom in Virginia, my seventh-grade English teacher taught us about the inevitable corruption that comes with the accumulation of power. The book was George Orwell’s iconic
Animal Farm, an allegory of totalitarianism that brings to mind historian Lord Acton’s famous dictum, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Thinking about this fable almost 30 later, I see that under a shifting political regime in which the grip of the fist keeps tightening, the rules keep changing, thereby eroding the freedom and equality of certain groups or individuals.
Highlighted in yellow in my faded paperback copy of
Animal Farm is Orwell’s famous axiom, printed in all-caps:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
It seemed pretty clear that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Just recently, the same teacher sent me an
article from the Washington Post by Adam Grant, a psychologist and author, in which he posits that power itself doesn’t necessarily corrupt; rather, it reveals character.
Grant cites many social and psychological experiments to argue his point, summarizing that “Power disinhibits us. It releases us from the shackles of social pressure. Gaining influence and authority frees us up to act on our real wishes and show our true colors.”
One young lawyer Grant discusses was threatened with being disbarred in the 1930’s for “taking questionable actions without his client’s permission.” The lawyer’s name was Richard Nixon.
But another lawyer from the previous century who also eventually became president, “held open office hours to hear the concerns of ordinary citizens, often for more than four hours a day.” His name: Abraham Lincoln.
As Grant puts it, “To predict how people will use power, you need to figure out what their motives, values and identities are before they have it. Are they generous givers or selfish takers?”
Here’s the final paragraph of Grant’s article, which prompted my teacher’s sending the article in the first place:
“When we claim that power corrupts, we let powerful people off the hook. How you use authority reveals your character: Selfish leaders hoard power for personal gain. Servant leaders share power for social good. And the ultimate test of character for people in power is how they treat people who lack it.”
Now, even more than in the last 30 years since I first came across the diminishing of humans into the dictum “Four legs good, two legs bad,” we need leaders who share power for social good, who are generous givers, and who proclaim that all animals are equal.
Period.
Sincerely,
Mark
Mark Elberfeld
President, The Gabriel Center for Servant-Leadership
