ON ABSOLUTE CORRUPTION PART 1

IN 1887 JOHN DALBERG-ACTON, 1ST BARON ACTON, wrote “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” These days, lamentable, Lord Acton’s adage comes to mind increasingly often. 

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, 1834–1902, English Catholic historian, Liberal politician, and writer. Image by Allen & Company via Wikipedia.

Here are tidbits gleaned from several sources, including Anne Applebaum’s “Trump’s ‘American Dominance’ May Leave Us With Nothing,”The Atlantic, January 5, 2026; David A. Graham’s “Hegseth’s Appalling Vengeance Campaign,” The Atlantic, January 5, 2026; and Chris Cameron’s “Stephen Miller Asserts U.S. Has Right to Take Greenland,”The New York Times, January 6, 2026. Also part of my research (and you’re encouraged to read) are Ronald E. Riggio’s “How (and Why) Power Corrupts People,” Psychology Today, February 10, 2024; and Wikipedia’s entry about Lord Acton (alas, note as well his reductio ad absurdum argument about slavery).

Recent news items focus on absolute corruption.

Trump’s Audacious and Egregious Venezuelan Kidnappings. Anne Applebaum opens with a literary reference: “In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the world is divided into three spheres of influence: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia, all perpetually at war. Sometimes two of the states form an alliance against the third. Sometimes they abruptly switch sides. No reasons are given.”

“Orwell’s world is fiction,” Applebaum observes, “but some want it to become reality.”

It’s All About the Oil. Applebaum continues, “I don’t think Americans will be any happier if another authoritarian is installed in Venezuela either. Most Americans still do want their country to stand for something other than greed, and most don’t want their expensive military to fight on behalf of Trump’s oil-industry donors. Trump’s pursuit of an illusory sphere of influence is unlikely to bring us peace or prosperity—any more than the invasion of Ukraine brought peace and prosperity to Russians—and this might become clear sooner than anyone expects.”

She concludes, “If America is just a regional bully, after all, then our former allies in Europe and Asia will close their doors and their markets to us. Sooner or later, ‘our’ Western Hemisphere will organize against us and fight back. Far from making us more powerful, the pursuit of American dominance will make us weaker, eventually leaving us with no sphere, and no influence, at all.”

So much for Donroe and his asinine Corollary. Also note Lord Acton’s comment about Oliver Cromwell: “There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.”

Tomorrow in Part 2 we’ll continue this discussion of absolute corruption. 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026