Every corruption proceeds from the mind. Every observed corruption is preceded by an internal invisible corruption - the corruption of the mind. Out of the abundance of the mind, the body acts, the mouth speaks and valuations are made. Corrupt minds spew out corrupt valuations and churn out corrupt and corrupting comments.
The corruption of the mind is by slow accretion but yet its effects are so pernicious and pervasive. Onset is quiet and often unnoticed. Triggers are many and diverse but manifestations are most times alarmingly similiar - a backsliding on erstwhile moral and ethical postures and a willingness to accommodate what we would normally have abhored. When we start to accommodate things we once condemned, when we start making excuses for acts that are universally condemnable, when we start to provide justifications for evil actions that shock all, then we should become wary. We should become wary because corruption's moral dimming software is gradually installing itself in our minds. Further installations may result in our failing to recognise what is bad and in statements to the effect that our recollections of evil done or our criteria for identifying evil have become confused. Final stages of this affliction is the death of conscience - a true tragedy indeed because with the death of conscience, a man or a woman dies. I have watched this happen to great men and women, and sadly also witnessed the death of my respect for such men and women.
The corruption of the mind is by slow accretion but yet its effects are so pernicious and pervasive. Onset is quiet and often unnoticed. Triggers are many and diverse but manifestations are most times alarmingly similiar - a backsliding on erstwhile moral and ethical postures and a willingness to accommodate what we would normally have abhored. When we start to accommodate things we once condemned, when we start making excuses for acts that are universally condemnable, when we start to provide justifications for evil actions that shock all, then we should become wary. We should become wary because corruption's moral dimming software is gradually installing itself in our minds. Further installations may result in our failing to recognise what is bad and in statements to the effect that our recollections of evil done or our criteria for identifying evil have become confused. Final stages of this affliction is the death of conscience - a true tragedy indeed because with the death of conscience, a man or a woman dies. I have watched this happen to great men and women, and sadly also witnessed the death of my respect for such men and women.
