Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us by Brian Klaas

In this book published in 2021, the author tried to find answers to the questions raised: who gets the power, why do people corrupt after gaining power, and what should we do to prevent such corruption? Personally, I read this book to understand more why authorities that I’ve met or heard acted like that. As it is not an easy subject, I couldn’t get one obvious answer, but the author coherently tried to give answers from various aspects encompassing evolutionary, psychological, and historical perspectives. Interesting anecdotes, interviews, and academic pieces of evidence altogether help us get a glimpse of the ‘true or core answer’, but still makes us feel ‘couldn’t get it done’. Nonetheless, I consider that this book can be the possible best answer to this complex topic. It is worth reading with only relevant knowledge in various fields and interesting stories presented in this book.

It is often said that power corrupts, but according to this book, people who are attracted to power are already different from other people, and if they gain power, they are likely to be evaluated as more immoral or worse than they really are. The greater the authority, the greater the responsibility, and the greater the influence in the world, the greater the opportunity to commit immoral acts. Among ordinary people, there are not a few people who will act equally or more immorally than those in power in reality when given the opportunity, that is, power.

It is said that humankind had lived in a horizontal social structure for 99.8 percent of history, and has lived in a vertical social structure as it is now only for a recent 0.2 percent of it. We don’t know for sure how societal structure will change in the future, but I will have to keep thinking about what to do to protect my freedom and do self-actualization in this hierarchical human world.