Sunday May 25, 2008
It takes restraint not to use power
Lord Acton defined a greater truth than he realized in his oft-quoted aphorism: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Most people assume that he was referring to politics. Certainly, there\’s enough evidence – just from the Chretien and Mulroney governments, in Canada, without ever looking at other countries – to support Acton\’s conclusion that political power leads to corruption.
As Henry Kissinger once coined an aphorism of his own, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
In truth, Lord Acton wasn\’t writing about politics at all. He included his terse rebuke in a letter to the Vatican, in 1870, protesting against the declaration of papal infallibility by Pope Pius IX. Acton himself was a lifelong, if strongly liberal, Roman Catholic.
Faulty assumption
It is sometimes said that more wars have been fought over religion than any other cause.
That\’s wrong. All wars are waged for power. Either to attain power, or to prevent someone else from attaining power. Religion is merely the excuse for going to war.
Power is addictive. Those who have power are never satisfied that they have enough.
Corporations extend their power through massive mergers. Businesses retain platoons of domesticated lawyers to protect their power through patents and trademarks.
Governments concentrate power in the prime minister or president\’s office; they invoke national security and systemic secrecy to protect their powers.
Criminal gangs use violence to increase their sphere of influence. More peaceful communities use gossip for the same purpose.
And then there\’s horsepower…
I\’m sure Lord Acton wasn\’t thinking about horsepower. But his insight still applies.
Deadly tradition
Last weekend was the annual Victoria Day long weekend in Canada. Ontario Provincial Police sergeant Cam Woolley called it “the deadly tradition of holiday weekends.”
In my day, young people showed off by going swimming in the nearest frigid body of water.
The next generation tended to gather at provincial campgrounds to get drunk.
The current generation, apparently, goes street racing.
The Ontario Provincial Police announced that they had charged 163 drivers last weekend with exceeding posted speed limits by over 50 km/hr. The most extreme instance caught a 17-year-old driver travelling 239 km/hr down a dark rural road.
In a bizarre twist, two OPP officers were also charged with street racing offences, while on duty and driving their police cruisers.
Most of the offenders are young men. Often, they\’re too young to vote, too young to drink in bars. But not too young to be entrusted with 500 horsepower.
In Ontario, excessive speed results in instant impoundment of the car and suspension of the driver\’s licence for a week, and fines of up to $2,000.
Unfortunately, only Ontario has such a law.
Flush with oil dollars, Alberta drivers splurge on expensive Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Then they see how fast their cars will go on Alberta\’s long straight rural roads.
What\’s the use of having power, if you can\’t use it?
Street racing
Urban racers typically choose smaller, lighter, high performance sedans or hatchbacks. Then they spend the original cost of the car, or more, improving performance with sticky tires, superchargers, custom exhaust systems, even nitrous oxide injection.
The result is utterly predictable – a car that goes like a banshee, but that still handles like a stock Honda Civic or Mazda 3, in the hands of an inexperienced driver.
An acquaintance calls this process “proof of Darwin\’s theory of natural selection.”
Unfortunately, they don\’t just kill themselves.
Vancouver RCMP Const. Jimmy Ng was killed instantly when a Honda Civic ran a red light in a street race.
Rob and Lisa Manchester were celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary when run down in a suspected street-racing incident north of Toronto.
A man died and three were taken to hospital after a high-speed head-on crash on Burnaby\’s Lougheed Highway
Toronto taxi driver Tahir Khan died after a racing Mercedes-Benz slammed into his cab…
Two teenaged street racers in Vancouver who hit 51-year-old pedestrian Irene Thorpe were convicted of criminal negligence causing death. They received conditional sentences of two years less a day, under house arrest.
"To my knowledge, there isn\’t (a convicted street racer) who has served more than five months in jail," OPP constable Kent Taylor told the CBC.
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For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to [email protected].
It\’s also worth pursuing Charlene Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
The corrupting desire to use power is not limited to automobiles.
I can\’t take my dog walking on a grassy hillside north of my home on weekends. Too many people on ATVs and dirt motorcycles take maniacal delight in shredding a pastoral landscape.
A friend died when the boat in which he was a passenger ran into rocks on a foggy lake near Kingston, Ontario. The impact flung my friend from the boat. He smashed his brains out on the rocks.
It takes no skill to use power. It takes great skill not to use power. Any ham-fisted bulldozer or excavator operator can knock down a house or an orchard. But only the most skilled can transplant a forget-me-not without harming it.
Far from being an incentive for war, the world\’s great religions all seem to me to favour voluntary renunciation of power. Buddha taught about getting rid of personal desire. In the Hindu Mahabharata, Krishna explained why coercion does not work. Confucius and Lao Tzu espoused compassion and tolerance.
The religion I know best is Christianity. I see no instances of Jesus ever using power to impose his will on others. During his temptations in the wilderness, he explicitly rejected a recourse to power. When his disciples suggested he call down fire from heaven to punish an infriendly village, he rebuked them.
Maturity, it seems, means a willingness not to use all the power one may have.
Street racers demonstrate their immaturity when they surrender their will power to their horsepower. They will prove that they are growing up only when they show that they can have power, and don\’t have to use it.
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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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