In reading some online newspapers last
week, a number of disturbing facts caught my eye: a district administrator was
arrested on suspicion of accepting
gifts for special services that never materialized; a
school principal was accused of attempted manipulation of school success rates, with a sizeable
amount of money involved; a minister of Social Affairs
acted as Santa Claus by granting gifts to social institutions
on his birthday (not from his own wallet, but from his formal representation
budget) to boost his popularity; governmental institutions are
scrutinized on suspicion of corruptive
actions, and a sizable part of society distrusts its political
representatives and government as well as government subsidized entities.
Corruption is a social disease that is easy to
lapse into. The reason
for that is also easy to see
through: if everyone does it, it
does not feel so corrupt anymore.
Corruption particularly manifests itself in trade and politics, and with that, it has
almost grown into a rule rather than an exception
in many governmental branches throughout the world. There is a wide
range of motives leading to corruptive actions, from safeguarding
of power and influence to bypassing unwelcome rules and regulations, and from accelerating
processes to paving a fast road toward affluence or
power.
The common factor driving business and politics is
their heavy transactional orientation. In the simplest possible
wording it boils down
to this: I'll give you this
if you give me that.
And then you may
go ahead and substitute any situation you wish: “I give
you the title on this piece of land if you ensure a nice sum of greasing money under the table,” “I will get you a meeting with the big boss
if you want to pay the price to be moved
up,” “I will speed up the processing
of your documents if you speed up
my wealth”, or “I will refrain from punishing you for your
actions and look the other way
if you want to look into my bank account”.
As you can tell, corruption usually appears in the form of a reward or punishment avoidance, but there is always a gift
involved, mostly in the form of money,
power, or prestige. Whatever it is that drives people to
corruption, the phenomenon remains one of the weak links in our civilization, and it is hard to imagine a human society that
is void of it. That, too, is understandable: where different people
come together, you will find different
characters and motivations, as well as different levels
of ethical reasoning. And it is a fact that you can alert people about ethics, but you
cannot really teach them moral values, because moral values are strongly linked to the culture and
structure of the society in which we live and
perform.
No society on earth is free from
corruption, but in some it is just more obvious than others.
It often coincides with local economies and
existing inequalities. When
large groups of people feel oppressed due to economic struggles, and when leaders
are continuously engaging in unethical practices,
corruption will find a fertile ground.
It’s true, there are quite some weak spots in human civilization, and corruption is one of the most striking examples.
And you know what? Chances are that
each of us has engaged in corruptive behavior at least once, albeit more out of
necessity than desire.
Unfortunately, there is no rosy endnote here, other than that each of us should think
critically about our conduct, and
evaluate whether the steps we are
about to take will be worth disrupting our emotional stability. Once we have made up our mind, we should do as we
decide, and accept the consequences. And that's all I have to
say about that.
