Brian Klaas

This is a valuable non-fiction explanatory thesis on who obtains power, why others do not, how they obtain power, what they do with power, why so many leaders are bad people who are corrupt and how to improve all of these areas. Dr. Klaas has previously written The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy (Hurst & Co, November 2017); The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy, (Oxford University Press, December 2016) and How to Rig an Election.… (más)

Why is it politicians are so corrupt? Why do they, and judges, and civil servants look on public service as the path to power and riches rather than service? Brian Klaas has written Corruptible, an exhaustive analysis of how we end up with these people in charge and what can be done to prevent it. It’s an entertaining adventure that spans the globe and history. It’s not pretty.

It seems those who seek power are in fact psychopaths. Give them just a little power and they manipulate everyone and everything to accumulate more. They might be open about it, like dictators, or secretive, posing as honest, helpful and humble achievers. And everything in between. With numerous remarkable examples and bizarre and shocking stories, Klaas shows that good intentioned people can become monsters when they are promoted to be in charge. Of anything, from whole empires to the maintenance departments of a high school.

Everything then revolves around them; it becomes all about their prestige, their power, their glory, their wealth. Nothing else in the world comes close. They suck out the wealth, suck out the goodwill and suck out anything that smacks of equality. We see it everywhere. Klaas examines several cases where lives went gradually, or even suddenly, criminally wrong.

He says what we really need are the people who don’t want to run for office, who don’t want the responsibility. They’ll likely be more honest and less power mad in office. Using examples such as a condo board, he shows that those kind of rational people steer clear. Instead, the board gets eager candidates who can’t wait to rule over everyone else in the development, instituting strict (if not irrational) rules, fining transgressors and seeking revenge over every complainer or opponent, or someone who just wants to be left alone.

This model scales to the national level, where self-selecting candidates are precisely the people we should not be voting for. It’s why voters stay away from polls. It’s why they think the field of candidates seems to be of lower quality every election. It’s how dictators come to power and how countries get into trouble. It’s the paradox of power: “Those who shouldn’t be in power are more likely to seek it,” he says.

Klaas describes unending psychology studies that demonstrate the defects in character that lead to power grabs. He also toured the world, meeting with former dictators, murderers and thieves, who today, out of power, seem like perfectly lovely people. While In power, they had no hesitancy say, sending in the troops to crack skulls, or to literally poison opponents themselves. They stole public funds by the billions. They wore their newfound wealth and power arrogantly.

With all the studies constantly being done, all kinds of profiles and generalizations are available. Corruptible people interrupt more, they stereotype other people more, they use less moral reasoning, and are more judgmental of behaviors in others than themselves. They even drive through pedestrian zones faster. Seriously. A study showed that people driving expensive power cars would not stop for pedestrians in crosswalks as much as drivers in just average cars. There’s a study for everything.

In the USA, the police are a major outlet for corrupting power. Encouraged by government, military veterans sign up by the thousands, ready, willing and able to shoot or smash anyone they don’t particularly like, in the guise of a police officer. It happens over a thousand times a year.

Worse, the federal government got the brilliant idea of donating surplus military equipment to local police forces, pretty much forcing them to create SWAT teams and commando units to make use of it. It has the same result: those who want to be cops are precisely the people who should never be hired into the force. Those who wouldn’t go near it are the ones who should be in it. “If you’re a bully, a bigot, or a sexual predator, policing is a really attractive career choice,” according to Helen King of the Metropolitan Police, London. Police are renown for domestic violence in their own families, abuse of steroids, and lying in court, all far in excess of national averages.

It takes a different mindset to correct. This is the experience of New Zealand. Their police recruitment advertising emphasizes community relations and co-operation, not armed bodybuilders storming a home. The result is all but zero police murders, a better reputation, and all kinds of community minded men and women choosing police work. In selecting recruits, working cops take them out on patrol and report back on their attitudes. They say things like Wait… they’re coming in for the wrong reason. And they’re turned down.

The result is a complete rebalancing of the force. Applications are up 24% as a broader spectrum of candidates feels it a worthwhile career. A quarter are now women, compared to ten percent in the USA, where police forces tend to be 30% whiter than their communities. Police in New Zealand account for 0.8 deaths of civilians per year; in the USA, it is well over 1100. In New Zealand, police are the community, not enforcers.

Compare this to Stebbins, a small town in Alaska, Klaas says, where almost all the cops are convicted felons, because they’re the only ones who apply. The more there are of them, the fewer other people want to work there. This creates vacancies where the only ones to apply….

So there are things to be tried. Klaas is not short of ideas, though many are easy to shoot down. And he misses some obvious ones, like term limits. If, as in ancient Greece, political offices were limited to a single term, lobbying would shrivel, and the comfort and security of a lifelong career would never be a factor. Cronyism would not work. He does however, recommend an end to long partnerships among the police, where buddies stick up for each other, look the other way, and co-operate in illegal activities that cops think they can get away with, what with all their insider information and connections in the force.

He cites Kevin Dutton, who listed the top ten careers for psychopaths: CEOs, lawyers, TV/radio personalities, salespeople, surgeons, journalists, police, clergy, chefs and civil servants. Politicians don’t make list only because their numbers are so limited. But in general, it’s everywhere.

I did have one issue with Corruptible. Klaas is a definitive writer. He is very clear and very certain in his claims. So when he’s wrong, he can be embarrassingly firm. He cites the decades unthinking consensus among anthropologists and psychologists that dominance comes from large numbers of people living together. “Put enough people together, and hierarchy and dominance always emerge (His emphasis). It’s an ironclad rule of history…Our choice is either to live in tiny co-operative groups or embrace hierarchy. “ As if Klaas is the expert. But this has been thoroughly debunked by David Graeber and David Wengrow in The Dawn of Everything. Major cities existed side by side with villages and small bands; they were not the result of a progression from small to large. Major cities existed without top-down administration, all over the world. People used to be co-operative, helpful and supportive in huge communities. Homelessness did not exist. Cities built communal housing for all. Inequality came later, with institutions, like royalty and religion. The opportunities for corruption were minimal, unlike today when they are ubiquitous. They say there is simply no basis for claims like Klaas’. For Klaas to cite civilization itself as a cause of corruption is unsupportable. Just skip chapter two; it’s wrong.

So power does corrupt. Situations corrupt people. Positions corrupt people. Some personalities are prone to corruption. Corruptible people self select when all it takes is an election or a promotion. And once inside the bubble, few can see what monsters they have become. They’re too busy demanding absolute loyalty. Finally, Klaas says that few studies suggest that power makes people more virtuous. Power is a drug, it seems. If you get a taste, it can overwhelm you – and take down the whole country if they let you keep at it.

David Wineberg… (más)