Power Corrupts

[Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor]

Some anarchist philosophy seems to revolve around the notion that power corrupts. This is also an anarchist critique of Marx's socialist state.

Here is my curiosity. How does power corrupt, why does it corrupt, and does it corrupt everyone equally? If a philosopher king presented himself, would we be right to suggest a socialist state would fail? Would the most benign, just, kind, et cetera, person be corrupted? Why? Is it really that Marxism is fundamentally flawed, or is it that it is essentially rolling the dice on the very low chance that the person is a saint?

[Revy]

I sometimes engage with myself the exercise of imagining how I could possibly become a dictator.

Now when I look to myself, I think, all the prestige, all the glory, and the opportunity to be held above everyone else, that's what would appeal to me.

I think it's very human to like that - which is why we must start with building a structure that isn't conducive to that kind of thing happening. Of course, there will always be prominent leaders in the movement, even one who is the most prominent, but you see a lot of parties on the left take this to extreme levels.

One good thing about the Socialist Party USA is it has two Co-Chairs (male and female), replaced regularly with new ones. I like this system - and I think other parties should adopt it.

[mikelepore]

How is "power corrupts" a criticism of Marxian socialism? How can the people enacting revolutionary change not have the power to oust the oppressors and stop the revival of their rule? If they don't want to exert power, maybe they should just use magic to make the oppressors float away into the sky.