Historically speaking, why was corruption and moral decay such a difficult issue to combat?
What do you mean by moral decay?
because corruption spreads and its upto blind luck if your prefered candidate could do the job
the more you have those, the bigger chance nothing gets done, eventually reaching a point when the state becomes disfunctional
moral decay im not entirely sure about, i mean raping and pillaging is morally wrong, but it fuelled empires for a long time
>>804981
Have you ever read about the last days of the Roman empire?
>>804969
Because you have to have the power to displace the corruption, and everything related to it. If you're not careful you'll end up dead.
>>804987
How can an emperor or a king NOT have the power to push out policies?
>no good responses so far
>sips cup
>>804992
its still A man only
i suggest you read about the roman empire and how emperors became emperors
>>805010
you sound like you've never opened a book in your life
>>804981
1.Desintegration of social structure and order
2.The pursuit of nothing beyond bodily pleasure
3.The absence of great men
everything deteriorates eventually. it is a cycle all civilizations and empires go through
Civilization is a vain exercise in fighting human nature. At the end of the day we're all animals and there's no changing that.
>>805025
That's dindu tier justification
>>804969
Corruption and moral decay are literally human nature.
There is no reason to believe corruption/morality levels changed very much through history. Was Caligula more or less insane than Elagabalus? While Rome was rising in power, Crassus was falsely accusing people of treason so he could confiscate their property, in fact corruption may have accelerated Rome's rise by concentrating more wealth in the hands of ambitious members of the elite like Julius Caesar.
>>805028
>Thirdly, it is usually said to the credit of such societies, as if one wanted to compensate for the reproaches of superstition and laxness, that they are milder and that cruelty declines drastically in comparison to the older, stronger, more devout age. but this praise I cannot endorse any more than the reproaches: I concede only that cruelty now refines itself and that its older forms henceforth offend taste; but wounding and torturing with word and eye reaches it's highest cultivation in times of corruption
>>804985
You mean the part where everyone became devout christians and rejected the old sociopathic "Roman" morality?
>>804969
The complete depravity of mankind is not a meme.
Because rulers, like everyone else, like power. The only difference between them and some peasent is that they are in the position to give themselves it.
>>804969
Easy.
Lazyness, complacence and general lack of wanting to do something about it.
People above all else aspire to acquire their desire in life, be that a comfortable living, power and wealth or even a violent living and shun all else.
Who cares about corruption or disparity granted by shitty economics and politicians that do better at popularity contests than actually running a country when it doesn't stop you from having a roof over your head, food on the table and other less necessary comforts?
Who cares about morality when morality is just the majority's opinion of it and everyone bends over it to avoid being ostracized or called "bigot" or "racist"? Is it moral to allow millions of radical Muslims to rape Europe because they "need help"? of course not, doesn't stop people from gladly allowing it to happen.
Our society is going through the last stages of it's life right now, but do people care? They seem more preoccupied with the new overpriced Iphone that does absolutely nothing new than that.
It's hard to combat because it's human nature to care about yourself and those close to you over the rest and as long as nothing is burning or nobody is trying to harm them then it's "fine", especially when today's society instills no values whatsoever, nor does it teach love of country. So you get the future generation of morons with no self respect or self control making bad decisions non stop because "YOLO" that hate the country they are born in and shun their ancestors and what culture they fought and died to give them.
Because for uneducated people, bodily pleasure seems like the greatest good.
>>805525
Every sign points to the exact opposite.
Because it was and still is very profitable
>>805457
/pol/ plz go
Because they're both inherent processes of power structures, and every attempt to combat them didn't address this.
>>805629
What do you mean by that? Party girls and PUAs are the new Socrates?
>>805625
As with most fake history you can blame the Victorians for it.
Assholes.
>>804969
Authoritarians tend to always believe that moral decay is happening around them, and no amount of purging can get rid of the feeling.
>>804969
Because corruption is a modern construct. Historically speaking, holding office and personal gain from it was self-explaining to everyone.
Read Weber for chrissake.
>>806017
You, when you have been besieged by so illustrious a city on account of your own wickedness and crime—when you have compelled men, miserable and maddened by calamity, as if in despair of our laws and tribunals, to fly to violence, to combat, and to arms—when you have shown yourself in the towns and cities of our friends, not as a lieutenant of the Roman people, but as a lustful and inhuman tyrant—when among foreign nations you have injured the reputation of our dominion and our name by your infamy and your crimes—when you have with difficulty saved yourself from the sword of the friends of the Roman people, and escaped from the fire of its allies, do you think you will find an asylum here? You are mistaken—they allowed you to escape alive that you might fall into our power here, not that you might find rest here.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/74
>>805525
Ass backwards.
Poor and undereducated people look to spirituality to make their shitty lives worth living. The wealthy and educated have the means to enjoy all of life's pleasures whenever and wherever they want.
>>806144
Ethics education is not the same as formal education. Most people, rich or not, formally educated or not have never read ethics.
Being a hedonist (in the popular sense of the world) is a symptom of ignorance.
>>804969
>why was corruption and moral decay such a difficult issue to combat?
Because it was in the interest and benifited the
>>804992
Tell that to King John, in a fedual system the local aristocracy have signifigant power and wealth and whilst the King/Emp might be more powerful and wealth than any single one a group can easily usurp him/her.
A King/Emps authority was not only bound by that but restricted by religion and tradition. Abosolutism is a very very modern notion and in no way reflective of how monarchies have functioned for the bulk of their existence.
Our adaptability is our biggest curse.
>>806165
Plato pls you're irrelevant now
>>804969
if everyone just got along perfectly and there were no wars, people would not get smarter or evolve in any way, it's the nature of living things
