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The Power Corruption Cycle Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely was the statement made by Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth century on the issue of corruption. This paper will illustrate how the power cycle perpetuates in any organization. In order to do so, the famous novel by George Orwell, Animal Farm will serve as our base for discussion. An ethical lapse or a corruption cycle in society tends to be similar to that of Animal farm from many observations in history; Stalin and Hitler to mention but a few. Animal Farm is a political satire written to parallel communist Russia. The book, like the communist revolution, contained many good and bad examples of leadership.
Animal Farm takes place on a small fictional farm in England called "Manor Farm. " The animals on the farm include dogs, a cat, ducks, pigs, horses, a donkey, and even field mice, pigeons, and a crow. On the farm the animals are hard working and severely mistreated. Clearly representing the working class, the animals of the farm are unappreciated and un-rewarded for their hard work by the human owners of the farm. The humans parallel the Russian monarchy. Lead by farmer Jones, who was a poor manager of his farm much like Czar Nicholas was a poor leader, the humans mistreat the animals. After being mistreated for some time one of the animals takes the first step toward change.
An old pig called Old Major has a dream of the animals running the farms of the world for themselves, without the evil presence of humans. He gives a speech to the animals of the farm about being free and working for themselves. Old Major then is like Lenin or perhaps Karl Marx. His ideas of freedom are communist in nature and they awe the animals of the farm. Old Major excites the animals with thoughts of revolution. Eventually Old Major Dies but his speech stays implanted on the minds of the animals.
The animals of the farm finally snap and attack their human oppressors. At first everything seems to go well on the farm. The two most prominent leaders of the animals begin to make rules for the animals to follow. Napoleon and Snowball, who parallel the leadership of Stalin and Trotsky, begin to take over the leadership roles on the farm. The main theme of Animal Farm starts to become evident here.
It is that in every society and organization, including the army or any business in the civilian world, leaders will likely abuse their power. This happened in communist Russia when Stalin eventually fought Trotsky for control of the government. Over time Stalin gained more support and had Trotsky banished from Russia. Under Stalin the Russian people were oppressed further despite his claims of freedom and liberty for those who cooperated. The same thing happens in Animal Farm. Napoleon and Snowball begin competing with each other over issues on the farm.
Napoleon eventually forces Snowball to flee after calling him a traitor to the animal's cause. He gains influence over the other animals on the farm and begins to abuse his power. This is evident when he moves into farmer Jones' house, sleeps in his bed, and even wears his clothes. This story paralleled every aspect of the rise and corruption of communism...
Similarly in any organization, the presence of power is tempting in many degrees. Allotting exclusive power to certain individuals without a system of check and balance will produce the same outlook of Animal Farm: a communist regime where those in power have all the power to manifest their wishes. Hence, one can implicitly conclude that the US government is immune to such factors by the very reason of the presence of the check and balance system. Organizations should implement a check and balance system, where every governing body is checked by its counterpart thus maintaining balance. After all, Power will tend to corrupt and history has never failed us on this statement. Works Cited Page 1.
Orwell, George Animal Farm. Harcourt Brace and Company, Florida. 1946
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Research essay sample on The Power Corruption Cycle
