Power Blindness

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
- John Dalberg-Acton

Does too much power makes you blind as well?

Everything I write, I write from the position that I may be right, but there is also quite a huge possibility that I am wrong. Even if I were in the position of power, I would have wanted to hear pros and cons of various approaches. Intuitively, I know that tunnel vision is worst thing that can happen.

My high school professor used to say, “In school there are two rules: First rule is that the professor is always right; and second rule is that when he is not right the first rule should be applied.”

Power blindness is a common problem among people with too much power. Regardless of them being world leaders, politicians, wealthy business people or anyone else; the pattern is almost always the same. The closer to the top and the more power they have – they are more prone to delusion that every single idea that crosses their minds is fantastically smart.

I can bet my week’s dinner that leaders like Kim Jong-un think they are always right. Is it a God complex or insecurity? Or maybe it is susceptibility to a feeling that if you admit you are lacking knowledge your entire image will be shaken, and that from that point on you will be perceived as a weak person?

But isn’t that the case with some of organizations as well? And, I am not only talking about corporations and their leaders, but also about the government and its branches and officials.

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs pointed, “The use of the CIA as a secret army of destabilization has a long, tragic history of failure, all hidden from public view under the agency’s cloak of secrecy. Ending CIA-caused mayhem would go far to staunch the instability, violence, and anti-Western hatred that fuels today’s terrorism.” *1 *2

The CIA — an organization with an almost infinite budget and resources. And, at the same time the agency that ironically has the words “Central Intelligence” in its name. Just imagine if you had that same burden on your shoulders, that you were called “All Mighty Highest Intelligence” how would that feel? And what you would think about yourself if you would make mistake? Can they make mistakes? If so, how often can they make mistakes? And if these mistakes are made, does anybody there care about the countless casualties caused by their careless actions?

Everyone knows, they even bragged about it, the Middle East crisis was a CIA’s doing, but they will never admit that it was mistake.

I have to ask myself, how far would they go? Probably I would not like the answer, as I may find out that they would rather go all the way through. Even if that would have meant destroying the entire Earth, instead of admitting that their actions were wrong, and that maybe next time better thing would be to not take any action at all.

Just by thinking that you cannot make a mistake, you are more prone to them. And that is an issue with every business and every tech start-up. And, how many of those have failed because of that reason alone?

If you ask me, even one is too many ...

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