Power doesn't corrupt, it enables

"moderation corrupts and absolute moderation corrupts absolutely" - third philosopher

Absolutely. Power is a means to an end. The desire to abuse power stems from weakness of character.

"I have often laughed at the weakling who calls himself good because he has crippled paws"

“It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” -Frank Herbert

power shows who you already are weakness makes you angry/spiteful/self-pitying

😵WE MAKING IT OUTTA THE DECAYING SOCIETY WITH THIS ONE 🥶🥶

Weakness certainly corrupts. I can't even count the number of times I wanted to do unspeakable things when I felt down in the dumps, but when I feel strong? Generosity, gregariousness, and self-efficacy. It may be worth mentioning that this "corruption" is not necessarily evil or weak. It can offer a little boost towards strength and a necessary sense of importance. The problem is possession. It's only useful to be resentful and envious to the end of attaining mastery.

Power, money, influence none of these things corrupt. Just like adversity, hardship and tribulation do not build. All things only reveal who you are.

I agree, as a Theist with this notion. A weak man is a man who is dangerous precisely because he’s weak. The weak man cannot control his emotions thus his mind.

When I was listening to nietzsche what I took from 'Will to Power' was that impotence leads to depression. The power one has to change that which you desire to change. Because if you were a wild animal and you weren't able to change the enviroment around you that is often a sign that you are the dead in waiting. Even if your a rich/powerful person if you find that you cannot change the things you wish to change then you can fall into depression.

external power corrupts, internal weakness corrupts. combine the two and you end up with one dangerous, unstable individual.

"The later acquisition of power does not necessarily undo the damage that has already been done to the psyche. Weakness has already corrupted it." Well said.

Narcissism corrupts, and absolute narcissism is called "the establishment."

Lord Acton was mistaken. Power reveals, absolute power reveals completely. Does anyone believe that Josef Stalin was a nice person before he became the ruler of the Soviet Union?

meek changed definition over the centuries. originaly it ment "those who have a sword and know to wield it, but keep it sheathed" in essence "those who speak softly and carry a big stick shall inherit the earth". and thats the gentleness of true power

The "apotheke" being "victory" part Is brilliant. This part made me realize that Nietzsche was not in fact suffering from what I thought was "nerd's remorse"

These short article entries are excellent. I've been doing a deep dive of BGE with two others and we're reading sections that mirror these podcast episodes. It's very rewarding.

The idea of Will to Power makes so much sense when you look the world. I think it's a shame Nietzsche never got to finish the book dedicated solely to that concept.

The psychology of weakness is embodified in Islam, finally I’m able to understand how they can be so vile, cruel, and petty

I have read the works of several philosophers, and I keep finding myself coming back to Nietzsche every time.

Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other. Carl Jung

5:06 "Nietzsche, I need your strongest potion." "My potions are too strong for you."

It's amazing that Nietzsche is seen as an antichrist. It takes true power to be authentically humble, caring, loving and forgiving. Any Christian virtue needs to start in a place of freedom. There can be no freedom without power. And the ultimate power is power over oneself. Self-denial is just that, denial of self by the self, not by others. When it's by others, it's just bondage and signals weakness.

Western society is completely decaying. Many people are going into escapism, doing things like excessively doing drugs, playing video games, watching porn. It is important that we remain strong during this time, because no matter how much you try to escape from reality, it will eventually catch up to you with new problems arriving with it.

Absolutely fantastic, thank you. I have believed power absolutely corrupts for a long time, but this video made me realize that’s not actually the case, simply that those who most often seek power are those most hurt and thus inflict their pain upon others, as a need to prove their own perceived power to themselves. Thanks for the great video!

Power doesn't corrupt, it simply reveals who you really are. and so does weakness (the lack of power), it doesn't inherently make you worse or better but it does reveal a lot about who you really are (in a different way that power does).

"anything can corrupt, everything can be corrupted" -my 75yo grade school graduate neighbor

Moral power needs also the fortitude to acknowledge your weakness in stride and not overcome your self image, otherwise that tempts feelings of impotence and insecurity. No one now or forever is without flaw. Now the poor are to be distinguished from the weak, although they often go hand in hand. Some are very strong inner moral character and dont have a vindictive morality... but perhaps you could argue they're not the absolute poorest of the poor. But weakness in itself embodies all negative traits, so I can see Nietzches reasoning.

Brilliantly done. This also in part seems to be a very good summation of our politicians in the west, who relish demonstrating their power in the cruellest ways.

I appreciate how your unbiased ( as far as I can tell) critiques really explore Nietzsche's views and what he meant in his writings; especially when you call out the away popular personalities appropriate Nietzsche's words with their own agendas.... from him all the way to George Carlin, I see a lot of that lately. Thank you for your care and effort which you convey in this transmission. ( And the fact that, from one musician to another, you take the time for this when you are likely busy with your own creative projects as well) Keep up the excellent work 👍🎸

Too much victory can be a bad thing, and it should not be over-prescribed. Yet, pursuing challenges and overcoming suffering are supposed to be the best ways to exert power or will, and lead to strength. So maybe measured tribulations overcome through great effort, as rare as such things are, would be the only type of victories we should value. Is it something that can be instilled into others, or are they already too poisoned to recover?

Thank you for your content, as it is consistently well written and concise. May you and your family increase in power.

Power doesn't corrupt, it exposes the corruption that hides within us

Well done on your first video with edited visuals-(I think?). Regardless, it’s efficient, informative, and right in line with the podcast. Keep this thing going. Gracias

The biggest problem for a moralist is which moral system to choose

Absolute banger. Thank you. Love and blessings!

Strength and power are different things. A bear is strong, but it does not have the power to run a space program. Power, when used for ignoble purposes, is how the weak approximate strength by exploiting the strong.

""Submitting to power degrades, exercising power corrupts."

Incredible work as always.

This actual came into my life after id decided to give into my weakness because someone broke my heart and it made me feel less than. So glad I watched this video it was like looking in the mirror I feel as though I have the wisdom to be stronger now.

9:30 This may be taking the point too literally, but a person who is meek may well also hold strength, but humility as well. for this example, the shepherd may well find love for his enemy (a virtuous trait) and be secure in himself but still think "I am a shepherd."

Seeking Power Corrupts. And if you are immature, being given Power can Corrupt.

Power, mediocrity, weakness all corrupt. Everything corrupts.

Wait I recognise your voice. I've been following your podcast on spotify for a while. Thank you for all the content you've posted there, it has helped me tremendeously to understand more on Nietzsche's philosophy and his life.

What a treasure each upload is!

So true. The most powerful people on the planet would never retreat to a secret island to abuse the weak.

Power does not corrupts you it show you you true self (you were corrupted from the beggning) -Thomas Jefkgleb sparrow (me)

They're both right. The problem with Acton's comment is that it doesn't ALWAYS corrupt. He ommits the very important bit that it's a possibility. This general notion that one should not seek power has been so prevalent, especially among some political movements, that other nefarious people have instead. That's the key point here: Evil people are evil before they gained power. It has been in the recent 3 yrs or so I've really come to the realization that Nietszche was right, and saw the deceptive lies propogated in media and by people that I shouldn't much clearer. One of the best pieced of entertainment, which I love dearly, Lord of the Rings, has mislead so many people from power, because they think it's like The One Ring. What they fail to see more obscured in that story is that the race of Men had to become powerful, by the power of Aragorn, and that Frodo and Sam had to be powerful to carry the One Ring, to defeat Sauron.

"Power corrupting" and "Weakness corrupting" are just special cases of the more general phenomenon that you begin to identify with what you do. You are what you do. I don't understnad how anyone could think its more complicated than that. Just reads to me like language games.

makes all the sense in the world to me. i found this quite enlightening. thank you.

I would love to hear your opinion on the video "Allure & dangers of reading Nietzsche" by Daniel Tutt. There were some things he said that seemed off. However, I don’t have the background knowledge to push on some of his points. I love your videos, man!

Excellent work brother

Great video and analysis.

I really need to read the "Thus spoke Zarathustra".

"Will to power" is famously nietzsche's most nebulous and least well-defined concept. As a result, a lot of people project whatever they want on to it. Take of that what you will

Thank you for this, you're doing incredible work!

I agree weakness leads to corruption quicker....but give a man power and he might abuse it just because he can.

That was excellent, thank you.

Power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals. If one truly wishes to test a man’s character, give him power. Everyone loves to preach goodness and fairness and the typical crap. But what would they do if they ACTUALLY got ahold of the power to do something about it? A poor man is given 10 million dollars, what would he do with it? Live a lavish life until he’s broke, destroys himself, and preaches how much he “worked” for it? Or will he invest in his future and donate large sums to charity? THAT is how power works.

The supreme contraddiction of Nietzsche is that in the end his is still a victimistic theory, *the* victimistic theory of the modern times I'd say, although not out of his fault. The revolt of the slaves is necessary to justify the cognitive dissonance that his ideal view of things (ironically) isn't how things are, that the "powerful" are ultimately not necessarily in positions of power and those in positions of power don't necessarily show the quality of these theoretical "powerful". It's no different to any other original sin or similar justification origin story, expecially in the sense that it is convenient, shallow, and ultimately self contaddicting. The slaves successfully revolted against the powerful, the powerful one defining characteristic, that of being naturally higher in power, in power projection, and in power administration, fails, the powerful are thus paradoxically proven to be weak. The one characteristic that should define them and divide them from the slaves in both Nietzschean and Aristotelian terms (which Nietzsche seems to be implying)... The capacity to power and not to be owned someone else. For the slaves have proven the ability to gain power and self ownership (although the latter is such a nebulous concept that it would be simple for an Aristotle or Nietzsche to say out of convenience that not they don't own themselves because of ad hoc decided criteria that fit the views they already believe in) while the powerful have failed to mentain theirs. Perhaps the powerful were not so powerful in the first place... This at least is one of the reasons why I have always found Nietzsche theory of power questionable

"Power corrupts. Lack of power corrupts as well" (Mikhail Bakunin)

Being in a position of weakness and oppression can show who someone is by how they behave in that status. Some people stop, assess themselves, and try to become better to get out of it. Others will point blame, hold petty and vindictive grudges, etc.

I disagree with both stances. Power reveals the underlying character of an individual. While Nietzsche makes good points about the corruption of the weak, these look points do not imply that power is good in and of itself. The excesses of our ruling classes in pursuit of more power or in the attempts to conserve it are more than enough evidence that power isn't automatically magnanimous in its manifestation. Geopolitical episodes such as the Vietnam War or even the war in Ukraine further illustrate this point. Having power does not remove anxiety. Additionally, the impunity that power can enable allows for abuses (normatively speaking). Think about Me Too (the genuine cases) or the whole Epstein saga. Lastly, to retort that these cases of insecurity and excess are signs that these people and entities are not powerful, I ask you a simple question; what is power then? The amoralism of Nietzsche and the revelation that nothing is true and everything is permitted poses the question to the amoral ones; what do value? Who do you want to be? It is an error to assume that the opposite of weaknesses is good. Didn't we pay attention when Nietzsche pointed out the errors on opposites?

Maybe both power AND weakness have the potential for corruption? 🤔

3:43 the paradox of power trough discipline by definition discipline : "the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience." So if you remove the punishment is it discipline anymore... and that's the loophole people use to bypass the discipline, they try to gain power in order to be able to do what they want without being punished because if you hold the power who is going to punish you when do not follow the discipline, also you become conscious of the fact that if you are able to use the power given to avoid detection you are able to avoid punishment. Is it paradox or is it the flaw of discipline... Also in my view you don't really need punishment to discipline your self, discipline without punishment works completely fine, when you remove from the equation instant gratification, and I don't think by getting punished when you slack will get rid of the notion that instant gratification is bad for you, because soon or later you will figure out that if the act of slacking off is not recorded and cannot be proven you can avoid the punishment and still slack off, so for me discipline is nothing short of being brainwashed because you are weak to begin with and are unable to impose self control, What I am getting at is that discipline does not teach self control, rather it imposes it on you, but is not self control it is the control of someone else, and if you are intelligent enough not to lose your self from the imposed self control, you will sooner or later figure out ways to avoid punishment, and this is why we can have corrupt people that hold powerful position in society... well maybe there is more but I feel I lack a great deal of detail regarding how position of power are acquired, so there might be even more to add to this... So when one states 'power corrupts' and the other states 'weakness corrupts' they are both right considering the realistic situation that after all said and done we have corrupt people at powerful positions, so there is either something not right with the definition of power or something wrong with the process of acquiring said power... and after all let's not forget that encounter of Alexander the Great and Diogenes... so what really is power... 3:50 hmm... 'self' hatred you say is there a possibility that this self hatred stems from the fact that one was disciplined in 'self' control but since that 'self' control was imposed upon their 'self' they start to harbor hatred towards their 'self'... 4:03 yes he is trying to make a point and is using something familiar to get it across... and in the process is actually straying away from the topic because he fails to realize that each person will view those morals differently... 4:12 In term failing to realize why religion is the way it is, well in this regard we all know that going against religion will get you cancelled so you cannot realistically make direct remarks at it... less you are deemed a witch 5:00 adrenaline rush is the right choice of word, well I suppose there was not the notion of adrenaline back then... 5:44 failing to understand that arrogance and intelligence are quite good friends... 6:00 so discipline can not dominate and oppress... 6:36 you know having wishful thinking from time to time is not a bad thing but if you get obsessed it certainly becomes bad for you, and let's not forget that poison can be used to make antidote... 6:59 yep getting even is the excuse... the real reason is to get peace of mind, funny thing about revenge is sometimes even when you exact revenge you still do not get peace of mind, and to worst thing is that you no longer have a target for revenge, so the only option you are left with is finding another target to exact your revenge... 10:49 I think the definition of harm is lacking in this definition, and to be fair you have to prosper faster compared to the parasites in order to maintain the status quo or sooner or later this negligible harm will bring you down was it because you were weak or was it because the parasites became stronger... 11:34 you simply put effort into getting rid of said parasites also parasites that turn out to be useful became gut bacteria... 11:59 yep concepts can vary form person to person, this is why context is important... 12:07 authentic... 'I have a lot and I am not afraid and choose to share it' compared to 'I know what it means to be lacking so I share the little I have to a person who is in such state right now' You tell which one seems more authentic, or give better examples on the matter... 12:32 circumstance =/= nature, nature culls the weak, if you are beaten and still survive it means nature still selected you but fate did not... So what I understood that Nietzsche defines the powerful as those that have managed to escape from the laws of nature and are no longer surviving, yes this makes them powerful but this does not necessarily make them morally correct, and defines weak as those who are still surviving and are struggling against the law of nature, what he fails to understand that those two different groups operate on a different scale and each of them are strong in their respective environment, because like I said you are deemed weak by nature if you fail to survive or leave offspring, those that have escaped the laws of nature do not need to abide by them so of course when you judge such people by those laws of nature they will seem powerful...

Well said. Feels like a lot of truth was found in this video.

Was the quote of “The person who is secure in himself and his own character would not need to create suffering, because the truly powerful have no need to demonstrate their power.” A direct Nietzsche quote or a fire line of your own?

This was most excellent. I had this intuition after reading him, but it wasn't until Rollo May's "Power and Innocence" that I found confirmation that violence springs from impotence, from weakness.

great work

This was amazing though I had to watch it twice. One of my favorite Nietzsche video.

But it's the same thing from the other side of the seesaw Nietzsche isn't disagree with Acton, he agrees Power corrupts if true means that weakness corrupts because they are different ends of same dynamic You cannot have a one sided banknote with twisting one end. It's the same thing manifest from different ends of the gradient of power If it's corrupted in people welding the power it's still corrupted when worked against another It needs to be balanced

im sure you know more about it than me but i feel youre using different meaning of power than the quote in question. its conceivable that powerful people in conventional sense are usually weak in nietzschean sense. so for example we can see that guys like Stalin did unspeakable horrors because power made them apathetic to human life and commited to power for power's sake are powerful in political sense but weak in nietzschean sense. i think the quote around 10:00 illustrates that well too, where powerful society which decides to let go of retributive justice system loses power over people doing crime in conventional sense, but gain power in nietzschean lastly i wont forgive that slander of parasites, systematically exploiting other species without them knowing is rad as hell

I feel so bad for not understanding until I saw your comment, salts. Maybe every dictator is weak for blaming 'the other' and that's why it resonates with people weak as him... This lesson feels like a punch.

I'm actually quite sympathetic to this because it reminds me of Hannah Arendt's concept on the Banality of Evil. She wanted to know what motivated the Nazi regime to exterminate what they saw as "undesirables" and managed to get interview with Adolf Eichmann. She was shocked to find out that he wasn't some mastermind or sadist who indulged in human suffering, but was merely a party man and political apparatchik for the regime. He adamantly denied any moral agency by claiming that he was "just following orders" in order to weazel his way out of a death sentence, but the court didn't buy it and had him executed. Eichmann remained unrepentant til the end. I recently came across the Turpin case, where a Pentecostal family isolated, abused, psychologically tortured their children and lived in squalor and filth in order to "protect" them from the outside world by making them dependant and sub-literate. I can't say that I believe in a god, but most evil is born out of human pettiness, spite, sickness, passive obedience, and stupidity. True malevolence is always rare. But then, you have ideologies and religions always spinning some tale of "decadence" to justify whatever they need to do to gain power because they are disgusted by the reality of the human condition. But it is always justified by some ad-hoc rationalization that makes things worse for "our own good". But no. There is no justification for such subhuman behavior.

The moral system of modern China has always been fickle and difficult to understand. It is mixed with so much authoritarianism and male patriarchy left over from the feudal era, and the concept of communism is forcibly added to it, just like the thoughts of most Chinese people and China itself, there are paradoxes everywhere

BEEN WAITING FOR MY ESSENTIAL SALTS

Solid premise

This channel is really really fantastic

You're using the colloquial definition of power and not the Nietzschean definition of power as described in his concept of "The Will to Power" Basically you're taking the argument of the sophist from book 1 of Plato's republic or Machiavelli's The Prince and selling it as Nietzsche when instead his concept of power is less power as you're describing it and more "growth" or "progress" of a person in general, like getting better at a skill, learning, mastering your craft, profession, basically anything that is tied into the energy associated with progress and bettering ones self. His concept of power is about the journey to power and not power strictly as the means to exert will over other people.

Of course! That Nietzsche guy is pretty smart. It should honestly be obvous to anyone by now that, if a person just wants to live their life, a little power and/or money won't really do no harm, they, on the contrary, will eliminate the chances of said person to become say a criminal for the lack of basic necessities.

The "power corrupts" idea comes from a rather depressed POV that sees some bad things and concludes that all things are bad so don't even bother trying. This apathetic depression is somewhat comical in that people don't realize they are holding onto their negativity and that if they truly let go of everything, both negativity and positivity, they'd be better off.

Power doesn't corrupt, it enables. I hate that stupid idiom, as much as I hate "with great power comes great responsibility" Power doesn't Obligate, it enables. Morals Obligate, and morals are subjective.

I wish Nietzche gives some examples of who are powerful and who ain’t. Are the butchers such as Genghis khan powerful? They spread suffering like hell.

What is the name of the music that plays at the end of this video?

To understand why power corrupts, just imagine yourself trying to control one man versus one million men. It is inevitable that those who would have power over the millions lose sight of what the individual is or even that they exist. It is not precisely that more power is corrupting, but that those that have much of it, become skewed in their thinking, only being able to see people as numbers on a page or as faceless groups. Losing sight of individual rights is the true danger. We are, after all, individuals, not merely pawns or faceless figures on a page.

Also: Victimhood corrupts. Without a lot work trauma bares a high risk to develop toxic personality traits yourself, people with trauma in general have less empatrhy. Putting victimhood on pedestil, not at last remnants of the Christian fetishization of victimhood and innocence i guess, is not helping anybody either but can turn very quickly into judgement when damaged people can't live up to the sainltly clichè

I don't envy modern philosophers. Mr. Friedrich Nietzsche is a hell of an act to follow.

Admirably concise. As I was listening I was thinking about modern armchair information warriors sharing resentment themed links with gusto in order to show others what 'powerful' champions of resentment they are ... Is this not on an essential level corruption? They're raising the banner of resentment for others to follow, contributing to a downward spiral.

We are corrupt by nature. But we are also conscious and supposedly intelligent. We are all good and bad. We must constantly watch our thoughts and desires and choose what to do.

Really shows how Nietzsche wasnt correct about everything. Rich and powerful people are usually the least intelligent and least empathetic people in the world. The idea that weak people become permanently cruel or more cruel at all from being weak is also crap.

"Weakness corrupts. And absolute weakness corruptd absolutely." LGBTQXYFHSKA people approaching WW3 shifts uncomfortably

The ability to avoid bad outcomes corrupts. Everyone is born weak.

The definition of weakness is critical here. Depending on morals, ideology, location and many other aspects, the weak will differ from person to person. As an example, i'm a martial artist, so i have power. If i don't use these skills to fight tyrants, am i weak ? If i use them to bully people and take their stuff, am i strong ? Does helping the poor is strong or weak ? Looking at the comments, many use these words to belittle, condescend and feel better at themselves for "not being weak". Which is very weak from a stoic point of view. This is so flawed.

What was the name of the song at the end?

Power, in any of it's form it's something pure and a revelatory force, it's a force of freedom, all truly rich nor powerful people are extravagant in their way and they don't really care about judgement, being free of do what pleases you can be good or bad based on your person but you also need to be aware of people that want to predate on your power so you also need to be difficult to approach, after a while it gets lonely, and every choice have more concequences the more power you have so you also have more and more pressure on you, to have power is not for everybody, you need to be tough really soon, but it's impossible to really know how it really feels without being there

Great video

"Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches- Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God." -Proverbs 30:8-9 I think the message here is that both power AND weakness can be corrupting.

Would seem more accurate to say that corruption is a sign of weakness.

Making me feel better with this one G. Thank you 🫡