Corruption

(To commend belatedly, I severely enjoyed both Jon's and Ted's recent posts.)

More to the point, what do you think about it? Corruption, precisely. Political corruption, to be more exact; or even financial and economic corruption. Of course, this is blatantly a rather personal issue. Which is to say; I'm asking you as people I know for some thoughtful answers. Some would also be inclined to say that it is impossible to answer in principle, because the very crux of the issue deals with a matter of absolute practice. Not many will argue openly that corruption is positive, is (as Summer would say) 'the good'; but then nevertheless I suppose it always remains a private question.

Would you, for example, take a bribe to write/speak favourably of someone? Discredit an opponent illegitimately in order to achieve an end? Pull certain 'connections' in order to not be conscripted into the army, to get into the university of your choice, to find a job that you like?

All these behaviours, ostensibly against moral common sense, how illegitimate are they, really? I'm just asking these questions because I've recently realized how relevant they are. My dad recently wanted me to meet a Privy Councilor to the Thai King, apparently a friend of his; and a former prime minister of Thailand. (Don't underestimate the emphasis of position; his designation, or how I knew him, was exactly -- Privy Councilor). Of course at meetings like these, one must ask oneself -- what for? I had no interest or knowledge in him outside that specific role. Would I be 'corrupt', simply in attending?

Another instance; I was searching for an internship in Hong Kong recently, and my mother told me about an informal network with her employer; my mother's employer had historically sponsored the head of the internship service and I was to refer to my mother's employer as my 'godmother', thereby almost necessitating a location. (Unfortunately, I found out that the application was four months too late). In any case, that also interested me in the 'language' of corruption. Would you manouvre by euphemism, tacit knowledge, referring to people to whom you had little connection, as 'godmother', 'uncle David', and so forth? Or would you rather be sincere, straightforward, and honest?

Would it be 'give me 500 dollars and I'll let you in'? Or rather 'You know, there are procedures for this sort of thing...' followed by appropriate gesture?

Otherwise, as to my daily life, I'm currently reading a massive headknocker called 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand, for obviously financial reasons, as anyone visiting http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_contests_index would know. It deals quite extensively with the political corruption apparently exclusive to Communism. An extremely interesting book, if a little pedagogic and repetitive, not to mention (did I?), MASSIVE. 1,000 pages in small print -- think Lord of the Rings in length, but the tone of an American (I mean AMERICAN) author expounding her conception of the virtues of hardcore (I mean hardcore) capitalism. I have been struggling through its density for three or four weeks now, but am hoping to finish it in sufficiency for HP7.

Otherwise, nothing is happening, as I suppose the nature and length of this post demonstrates exceptionally.