I was thinking of how the power of corruption just snowballs. It looks for ways to circumvent laws and just draws up other people by it’s threat of beating them by its force. It is so powerful it bulls over any weakness that rises to defend it.
And I was asking myself if the alternate force, Goodness, has any way to compete. And I think it does, but it looks different.
The power of corruption is like a grenade; it moves in fast, shows its firepower in the form of influence, money, and violence, and people must react immediately or be consumed by it’s impact.
Goodness, in contrast, is like a human heart. Without its quiet work none of us would have survived. As a baby someone had to be good to us in order for us to even stand on our own. It slowly and quietly sends life equitably to all parts, irregardless of their influence or power. And it assumes others will return the favor to do their part and sustain the rest.
You can usually recognize these forces if you’re looking for them as they rear their heads. You can tell on a company’s website if they’re trying to skim your email address and extra charges at each step. Or you can see if their passion is to provide a good product to anybody who needs it. You can tell it in the voices in the room who’s posturing to be tougher than the others. It usally makes a person less likable but we bow to the power when we overhear they work for a powerful company or have a lot of money, basically if we can earn something from them. In that moment the corrupted type of force is winning in us.
And that type of power spreads fast because we are all hungry for quick power, and when we see that type of living is not stopped, and is even gaining speed. And we watch it tackle the people with the good-type of power whose default is quietly doing it’s work. Sometimes the good forces must unbecomingly put on the clothes of the violent corrupt forces in order to resist it for a time.
And I despair when I see that. I recognize how many of us so willingly step onto the wagon that is picking up speed at the expense of plowing through weaker people. Until I remember that all of us also have within us the need to be loved. And though corruption finds it’s members by tempting with quick power, goodness has far more people to appeal to. It calls the name of any one who is lonely, sad, or rolled over. And all of us have some of that in us.
