essay : politics without ethics is a disaster .
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essay : politics without ethics is a disaster .
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Answer:
Introduction:
In modern states absolute power rests with the politicians. This is so in India too. The huge expenses involved in electioneering and the desire for a grand life style tempt the political leaders to amass money, often unethically.The result is a political culture without ethics that naturally degenerates into wilder corrupt practices. As power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely every aspect of Indian life becomes corrupt.
Development of Thought:
Corruption had been present in politics from ancient times. Machiavelli’s book The Prince illustrates the corrupt practices, rulers indulged into, in Renaissance Italy. In the ancient democratic Greece even Pericles was charged with corruption. Chandragupta’s minister Chanakya has mentioned the unethical practices of kings of ancient India in Arthashastra. But the corruption of ancient was different from that of modern times in the following ways.
1. It was not so “wide-spread. 2. Influence of sane people like Socrates, Buddha and such was more positive on people. Their teachings acted as a counter weight on corrupting influence. Religion had a check on corruption among the masses. 3. Even those rulers who acquired power through corrupt means transformed themselves into humanitarians later. Medici rule of Italy is an example corruption that emanates from political leaders affects the Indian society in several planes.
It has its (1) moral, (2) intellectual (3) sociological and (4) economic impact and the damage it causes is considerable. The malady appears un curable because society is caught up in a vicious circle where present day politics corrupt the society and that corruption in society, is making politics and politicians more corrupt.
Conclusion:
Is there any possibility of a change for the better? It is not likely to come from within the society. It may come from outside. Something like a new incarnation may happen. Not in the traditional way, but differently, when evil will get destroyed by its own internal struggle. But the process may be miserably long and during the course even the good people are likely to suffer.
Politics in the widest sense is the art of ruling and Ethics, the science of morals, of good and bad. In modern times, politics in India and for that matter politics in any country is found to be devoid of ethics. In the absence of ethical considerations in political decision making, the resultant corruption and associated evils spread around in society.
Politicians in modern states wield a lot of power, practically absolute power and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is what we find around at the moment in India. Immorality, selfishness and greed have crept into politics, the set of power with the consequential decay eating into the entrails of Indian society.
There is no organizational body, intellectual or professional that is free from this degradation at present. More tragically, there is no individual of eminence in the field of politics or religion, education or economics, art or craft, science or technology who is free from the taint of the all embracing corrupt practices of the present.
What Y.B. Yeats talked about the moral decay of the post-world-war Europe fits the Indian Scenario exactly.
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed…
The ceremony of innocence is drowned
The best lock all conviction… “
Society is decaying, time honored values are declining and the human bonds are shattering. Honesty, innocence and integrity are not valued. Greed rules the roost and almost all people of consequence worship Manmon as their god.
If we look, back into history, perhaps we can find the absence of ethics and the existence of corrupt practices in politics from ancient times. Machiavelli’s advice to Italian rulers, in his book.
The Prince, is full of amoral or unethical nuances. And that book is presently the bible of politicians everywhere, in ancient Greece, where modern democratic government is said to have its origin, corruption in high places was not unknown. Even Pericles, whose name gave a golden aura to the history of Greece, was charged with corruption.
Why, in our own country what did our famous Chanakya do to establish a mighty empire for Chandragupta Maurya, as his adviser? His Arthasastra illustrates the then prevailing practice of indulging in cunning and crafty means in acquiring, keeping and expanding.
But there is a lot of difference between the amoral political practices of those times and the absolutely selfish and rottenly corrupt practices found in politics around us.
Though corruption existed during those times, the influence of that corruption on society at large was not all embracing as in modern times.
Explanation: