Tanner Trimble Mr. Pitcher English 12 2/28/10 Corruption In Three Forms Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life. - Saul Alinsky The world as we know it, whether it be crime or justice, all comes down to one thing. Influence. Influence tells a child to disobey their parent or to follow the rules set for them. Influence holds the reins behind every man, woman, and child’s actions towards anything. We hear excused for the person’s action ever day. They where under the influence of drugs or alcohol, peer pressure, or they didn’t know what the consequences would be. Influence is what makes our society rise above all or fall under them. But, what is influence to the people who are harmed by it? Influence is Corruption to the mind. People who harm the society by crimes and disapproving actions where corrupted by one thing or the other. They could have been corrupted by the idea that what their government does and gets away with should be rebelled against. They could put their whole lives into the church and believe when they do a crime it is for a higher power. They could even be working for a corporation that deals in unlawful actions, and they fall in line. What ever it is, Corruption is the one thing that destroys our moral society every day. There are three types of corruption that hold water over all. These three are Religious Corruption, Corporal Corruption, and Governmental Corruption. When you live your life believing so highly in one of these three organizations, any action they do you think it justified. The Catholic religious scandals of sexual abuse to children is the what we must understand as possible for ever religion. If one religion can do so, what is it that stops other religions from following the same actions. When a Government tries to pass laws that restrict the people against their moral beliefs, it shows that the government has power and all others must fall in line. This leads to uprising, higher crimes and a more unlawful society. The prohibition act tried to take away all alcohol, believing that it was the reason behind so much crime. Once taken away, it was the sole reason for the rise in gangs and the start of the Mafia. In the early nineteen twenties and late thirties, the law of Bribe and Influence was put in place because Mafia members and Corporations would give money to political officials in the belief that those officials would try to pass or influence bills in the corporations favor. These three corruptions are the bases behind why our society has, is and will fail morally if we do not do something to change it. Political corruption may be defined as bribery, graft, extortion, robbery, patronage, nepotism, cronyism, conflict of interest and kickbacks. Ethically questionable behaviors have haunted American politics from the time Europeans settled country. In the 1920’s the prohibition of alcohol was an attempt to lower the crime rate of crimes influenced by alcohol. Within several years the action failed as rebellion and the rise in gang leaders rose. This was the rise of the American Mafia, and some of the worlds worst criminals. Actions such as these where not influenced by the population. The government didn’t ask people if it was a wise decision, they just acted. If our government has the ability to do things such as these, what is stopping them from doing worse? Well, luckily there are things such as the constitution that makes it harder for the government to do these types of things. Yet, if they can influence, or corrupt our nation to believing we need something, what constitutional rights are they breaking. On September 11, 2001, the first major terrorist action was made on American soil. When the twin trade towers came down, people where in a frenzy. The government took advantage of this frenzy and passed the Suspected Terrorist Act, which allowed them to break any constitutional right on an individual if that individual is suspected of being a terrorist or having contact with Terrorist. This might be one of the largest scandals, or conspiracies ever put in action within the United States. This led to the RFID Chip Conspiracy, making people think that soon they will be putting in chips that allow the government to locate any person in the United States, for safety precautions. (National News Paper Article) How many people have to be influenced in order for the government to take full control of our rights? When will we learn that yes we need order, but we need order for the people and by the people, not above the people? We must learn that when the government attempts to influence us in order to pass a law, we must look at the law without bias opinion and determine the harmful affects of it. When the prohibition act to eliminate alcohol failed, corporations and gang organizations used the money they gained to pay off governmental officials in order to pass laws. Once this outrage hit the view of the people, the Bribery and Influence Act was put in place. This act was put in place to keep any individual or organization from bribing or influencing any governmental official. This included stat officials such as cops, and went all the way up to the President of the state. Yet, there was one large flaw in this act. Business’ where still allowed to donate money to whoever they wanted to win an election, which allowed a relationship between that official and the business. As long as they claimed it was only for donations, they got away with it. The banks of the United States have recently been put in financial distraught. This is because they influenced the government to allowing them to hand out loans. The Banks began handing out loans for so many that it eventually hit them back to the point that they lost money on the loans. They needed the government to bail them out. Many business’ rely on the government to help them get out, and the biggest way to do this is to pay them off. Now, this is one of the largest scandals of the Corporation. (News Article) Yet, there are small things that happen daily that are corrupt. On January 21, 2010, a corporate owner told his council he was going on a business trip. The trip was less business as it was a family vacation, yet he still dipped into the money of the business fund. So many corporate owners do this every day because they believe they can get away with it. Well we allow these people to get away with it. In World War 2, Adolph Hitler gained the ability to sway the people with his words and actions. He united a fallen country, and began to take over nearly all of Europe. The people looked at him so highly that they allowed themselves to be blind sided. They where blind sided by what was really going on in the world. They knew that Hitler believed all Jews, Blacks, Hispanics and any one not of his race needed to be exterminated. A whole population of Germany believed in this ludicric ideal because they didn’t know what else to believe. They didn’t understand that what they had the ability to do was more powerful then what Hitler attempted to do. You are the future of your governmental beliefs, and if we do not change we will be blind sided again. We must stop these corrupt actions before they affect the people even more. The most important thing we must stop is Religious Corruption. Now 76 % of the U.S population claims to be Christian. That would be about 228,000,000 people that claim to be Christian. This statistic was taken in 1990 but lets still use it for today. If we assume that half of these people go to church, and we don’t include children, we would have at little under 100,000,000 people that go to church ever Sunday. These people devote their lives to the religion. When your values are linked with your beliefs, it becomes one of the hardest things to change. You must understand that your views are not truly your own. Your teacher, parents and in this case your religious headman or women put ideas into your head that change your views. This is called influence, and isn’t completely bad. But when the line between influence and corruption mix together you have a problem. The Catholic church has been harmed with acquisition such as Sexual Scandals and Child Abuse. These acquisitions have been predominantly in Ireland. The people who accused the Church asked for 318 million dollars in settlement for the sexual abuse. (Popular magazine) We hear about these sexual scandals ever single day, whether it be in the news or on T.V, such as Family Guy. Although nation-wide enquiries have only been conducted in the United States and Ireland, cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors have been reported and prosecuted in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other countries. In 1994 allegations of sexual abuse on 47 young seminaries surfaced in Argentina. In 1995 Cardinal Hans Herman Groer resigned from his post as Archbishop of Vienna, Austria over allegations of sexual abuse, although he remained a Cardinal. In Australia more than 12 priests of the archdioceses of Canberra and Goulburn, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Townville, Ballarat, Bunbury, Wagga Wagga and Marist Fathers of Tasmania were convicted for sexual abuse. Therefore, if you look at just these acquisitions you see nothing but corruption. Yet, this is not the only bad the Religious Society has done. The Catholic religion states that the only true way to go to heaven after sins are committed is for you to repent all your sins to the lord all mighty. Yet, in the Eleventh Century, the Catholic Church, along with the English government, allowed you to buy out your dead from hell. You paid the church to force a confession upon the dead. While every Religion has the ability, and most likely, to help people from distraught moments in their life, they also have the ability to influence and corrupt not only a sect group but nearly the whole population of the world. It is because of this that you should not look towards your religion so highly that they cannot possibly be wrong, but instead see them as a way to help you get where you want to go, but only as a friend, not a leader. In Summer, we are being influenced every day. These influences change us to being one way or another. Eventually one of these influences crosses the line into corruption, and eventually harms society. As we have seen from the ideals of select governmental officials, if we allow ourselves to be pushed into one select idea without being able to see the ideas behind it, then we just blind ourselves. We must be able to see everything for what it and look at it with out
bias standards. As we seen in Corporate corruption, if we depend to much on the government and fail, we not only fail ourselves but we fail the people. It is because of the U.S Bank Bailouts that the economy went from bad, to worse. Finally, as we have seen with Religious corruption, if we base our beliefs solely on one ideal, and don’t attempt to seek other ideals, we get set up for let down after let down.
National Newspaper Article:
Granneman, Scott. "RFID Chips Are Here." New York Times 26/03/2003: Print.
Other Articles:
N/A, . "Prohibition Acts." Wikipedia. 1/03/2010. Web. 6 Mar 2010.
Mr. Pitcher
English 12
2/28/10
Corruption In Three Forms
Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life.
- Saul Alinsky
The world as we know it, whether it be crime or justice, all comes down to one thing. Influence. Influence tells a child to disobey their parent or to follow the rules set for them. Influence holds the reins behind every man, woman, and child’s actions towards anything. We hear excused for the person’s action ever day. They where under the influence of drugs or alcohol, peer pressure, or they didn’t know what the consequences would be. Influence is what makes our society rise above all or fall under them. But, what is influence to the people who are harmed by it? Influence is Corruption to the mind. People who harm the society by crimes and disapproving actions where corrupted by one thing or the other. They could have been corrupted by the idea that what their government does and gets away with should be rebelled against. They could put their whole lives into the church and believe when they do a crime it is for a higher power. They could even be working for a corporation that deals in unlawful actions, and they fall in line. What ever it is, Corruption is the one thing that destroys our moral society every day.
There are three types of corruption that hold water over all. These three are Religious Corruption, Corporal Corruption, and Governmental Corruption. When you live your life believing so highly in one of these three organizations, any action they do you think it justified. The Catholic religious scandals of sexual abuse to children is the what we must understand as possible for ever religion. If one religion can do so, what is it that stops other religions from following the same actions. When a Government tries to pass laws that restrict the people against their moral beliefs, it shows that the government has power and all others must fall in line. This leads to uprising, higher crimes and a more unlawful society. The prohibition act tried to take away all alcohol, believing that it was the reason behind so much crime. Once taken away, it was the sole reason for the rise in gangs and the start of the Mafia. In the early nineteen twenties and late thirties, the law of Bribe and Influence was put in place because Mafia members and Corporations would give money to political officials in the belief that those officials would try to pass or influence bills in the corporations favor. These three corruptions are the bases behind why our society has, is and will fail morally if we do not do something to change it.
Political corruption may be defined as bribery, graft, extortion, robbery, patronage, nepotism, cronyism, conflict of interest and kickbacks. Ethically questionable behaviors have haunted American politics from the time Europeans settled country. In the 1920’s the prohibition of alcohol was an attempt to lower the crime rate of crimes influenced by alcohol. Within several years the action failed as rebellion and the rise in gang leaders rose. This was the rise of the American Mafia, and some of the worlds worst criminals. Actions such as these where not influenced by the population. The government didn’t ask people if it was a wise decision, they just acted. If our government has the ability to do things such as these, what is stopping them from doing worse? Well, luckily there are things such as the constitution that makes it harder for the government to do these types of things. Yet, if they can influence, or corrupt our nation to believing we need something, what constitutional rights are they breaking. On September 11, 2001, the first major terrorist action was made on American soil. When the twin trade towers came down, people where in a frenzy. The government took advantage of this frenzy and passed the Suspected Terrorist Act, which allowed them to break any constitutional right on an individual if that individual is suspected of being a terrorist or having contact with Terrorist. This might be one of the largest scandals, or conspiracies ever put in action within the United States. This led to the RFID Chip Conspiracy, making people think that soon they will be putting in chips that allow the government to locate any person in the United States, for safety precautions. (National News Paper Article) How many people have to be influenced in order for the government to take full control of our rights? When will we learn that yes we need order, but we need order for the people and by the people, not above the people? We must learn that when the government attempts to influence us in order to pass a law, we must look at the law without bias opinion and determine the harmful affects of it.
When the prohibition act to eliminate alcohol failed, corporations and gang organizations used the money they gained to pay off governmental officials in order to pass laws. Once this outrage hit the view of the people, the Bribery and Influence Act was put in place. This act was put in place to keep any individual or organization from bribing or influencing any governmental official. This included stat officials such as cops, and went all the way up to the President of the state. Yet, there was one large flaw in this act. Business’ where still allowed to donate money to whoever they wanted to win an election, which allowed a relationship between that official and the business. As long as they claimed it was only for donations, they got away with it. The banks of the United States have recently been put in financial distraught. This is because they influenced the government to allowing them to hand out loans. The Banks began handing out loans for so many that it eventually hit them back to the point that they lost money on the loans. They needed the government to bail them out. Many business’ rely on the government to help them get out, and the biggest way to do this is to pay them off. Now, this is one of the largest scandals of the Corporation. (News Article) Yet, there are small things that happen daily that are corrupt. On January 21, 2010, a corporate owner told his council he was going on a business trip. The trip was less business as it was a family vacation, yet he still dipped into the money of the business fund. So many corporate owners do this every day because they believe they can get away with it. Well we allow these people to get away with it. In World War 2, Adolph Hitler gained the ability to sway the people with his words and actions. He united a fallen country, and began to take over nearly all of Europe. The people looked at him so highly that they allowed themselves to be blind sided. They where blind sided by what was really going on in the world. They knew that Hitler believed all Jews, Blacks, Hispanics and any one not of his race needed to be exterminated. A whole population of Germany believed in this ludicric ideal because they didn’t know what else to believe. They didn’t understand that what they had the ability to do was more powerful then what Hitler attempted to do. You are the future of your governmental beliefs, and if we do not change we will be blind sided again. We must stop these corrupt actions before they affect the people even more.
The most important thing we must stop is Religious Corruption. Now 76 % of the U.S population claims to be Christian. That would be about 228,000,000 people that claim to be Christian. This statistic was taken in 1990 but lets still use it for today. If we assume that half of these people go to church, and we don’t include children, we would have at little under 100,000,000 people that go to church ever Sunday. These people devote their lives to the religion. When your values are linked with your beliefs, it becomes one of the hardest things to change. You must understand that your views are not truly your own. Your teacher, parents and in this case your religious headman or women put ideas into your head that change your views. This is called influence, and isn’t completely bad. But when the line between influence and corruption mix together you have a problem. The Catholic church has been harmed with acquisition such as Sexual Scandals and Child Abuse. These acquisitions have been predominantly in Ireland. The people who accused the Church asked for 318 million dollars in settlement for the sexual abuse. (Popular magazine) We hear about these sexual scandals ever single day, whether it be in the news or on T.V, such as Family Guy. Although nation-wide enquiries have only been conducted in the United States and Ireland, cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors have been reported and prosecuted in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other countries. In 1994 allegations of sexual abuse on 47 young seminaries surfaced in Argentina. In 1995 Cardinal Hans Herman Groer resigned from his post as Archbishop of Vienna, Austria over allegations of sexual abuse, although he remained a Cardinal. In Australia more than 12 priests of the archdioceses of Canberra and Goulburn, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Townville, Ballarat, Bunbury, Wagga Wagga and Marist Fathers of Tasmania were convicted for sexual abuse. Therefore, if you look at just these acquisitions you see nothing but corruption. Yet, this is not the only bad the Religious Society has done. The Catholic religion states that the only true way to go to heaven after sins are committed is for you to repent all your sins to the lord all mighty. Yet, in the Eleventh Century, the Catholic Church, along with the English government, allowed you to buy out your dead from hell. You paid the church to force a confession upon the dead. While every Religion has the ability, and most likely, to help people from distraught moments in their life, they also have the ability to influence and corrupt not only a sect group but nearly the whole population of the world. It is because of this that you should not look towards your religion so highly that they cannot possibly be wrong, but instead see them as a way to help you get where you want to go, but only as a friend, not a leader.
In Summer, we are being influenced every day. These influences change us to being one way or another. Eventually one of these influences crosses the line into corruption, and eventually harms society. As we have seen from the ideals of select governmental officials, if we allow ourselves to be pushed into one select idea without being able to see the ideas behind it, then we just blind ourselves. We must be able to see everything for what it and look at it with out
bias standards. As we seen in Corporate corruption, if we depend to much on the government and fail, we not only fail ourselves but we fail the people. It is because of the U.S Bank Bailouts that the economy went from bad, to worse. Finally, as we have seen with Religious corruption, if we base our beliefs solely on one ideal, and don’t attempt to seek other ideals, we get set up for let down after let down.
Bibliography
Website Article:
Gore, Martha. "Political Corruption in America." Suite101. 22/08/2008. Web. 1 Mar 2010.
Local Newspaper Article:
"Bribery committed by large companies and multinational corporations - social problems and systematic, pervasive government corruption." Science Stage. Web. 2 Mar 2010. <http://sciencestage.com/v/19460/bribery-committed-by-large-companies-and-multinational-corporations-social-problems-and-systematic,-.html>.
Popular Magazine:
Improper, The. "Sinead O'Connor Rips Catholic Sex Scandal." The Improper. Com. The Improper, 05/03/2010. Web. 6 Mar 2010. <http://www.theimproper.com/?p=4925>.
National Newspaper Article:
Granneman, Scott. "RFID Chips Are Here." New York Times 26/03/2003: Print.
Other Articles:
N/A, . "Prohibition Acts." Wikipedia. 1/03/2010. Web. 6 Mar 2010.