Why the worst get on top

Very  frequently, politicians and public officials who rise to key positions at the pinnacle of their collectivist organizations fizzle out like dying Roman Candles, leaving behind a trail of corruption and failed promise. In U.S. Presidential politics, Richard Nixon ranks high among such collapses. In the U.S.  House of Representatives, the Chairmanship of Ways and Means is a sure-fire signal of impending disaster, as Wilbur Mills, Danny Rostenkowski and Charlie Rangel no doubt would admit. In the U.S. Senate, simply being in the chamber overly-long will take its corruption toll, as Robert Byrd clearly demonstrated. Even the heads of powerful federal government departments, like Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security, quickly adopt the robes of absolute power, robes that always seduce their occupants into absolute corruption.

Why does this occur so systematically across time?  Friedrich von Hayek, in his 1944 masterpiece, The Road to Serfdom tells us why in Chapter 10, which is entitled:  Why the worst get on top.

The key insight that Hayek offers is that accessing power is the key motivation for anyone who seeks high public office. A desire to organize social life according to a unitary plan itself springs largely from a desire for power:

“It is even more the outcome of the fact that, in order to achieve their end, collectivists must create power – power over other men wielded by other men – of a magnitude never before known, and that their success will depend on the extent to which they achieve such power.” Hayek, 1944, 159

As Hayek observes:

“The principle that the end justifies the means in individualistic ethics is regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule: there is literally nothing which the consistent collectivist must not be prepared to do if it serves ‘the good of the whole’, because the ‘good of the whole’ is to him the only criterion of what ought to be done.’ (Hayek 1944, 162

If amorality is essential at the top of the collectivist pyramid, as Hayek suggests , then it becomes equally essential for all those who enter the pyramid at its base, and who aspire to rising to the top themselves:

“Since it is the supreme leader who alone determines the ends, his instruments must have no moral convictions of their own.  They must, above all, be unreservedly committed to the person of the leader; but next to this the most important thing is that they should be completely unprincipled and literally capable of anything.  They must have no ideas of their own which they want to realize; no ideas of right or wrong which might interfere with the intentions of the leader.” Hayek 1944, 166

As Hayek notes, this offers overwhelming incentives for the very worst individuals in society to enter  into such collectivist pyramids:

“there will be special opportunities for the ruthless and the unscrupulous.  There will be jobs to be done about the badness of which taken by themselves nobody has any doubts, but which have to be done in the service of some higher end, and which have to be executed with the same expertness and efficiency as any others.  And as there will be need for actions which are bad in themselves, and which all those still influenced by traditional morals will be reluctant to perform, the readiness to do bad things becomes a path to promotion and power.” Hayek 1944, 166

Naturally, those who supply their services to collectivist organizations will manifest the talents required for their task:

“the probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping-master in a slave plantation.” Hayek 1944, 167 

Tags: absolute power corrupts absolutely, power corrupts, whi high-level politicians serve corruptly