I think authority shares a common human weakness—the
tendency to view strength as deriving from human rather than divine
origin. Another way of putting this is
to say there is a human tendency not unknown to the Caesars of considering
oneself a god rather than worshiping the Almighty. Fast to follow on this tendency is the
development of a peculiar blindness that sees oneself as more righteous and
more worthy than others. There is a resultant
tendency to think “my shit don’t stink.”
This is so common that the following phrase has become trite but too
often true—the arrogance of power. This originates
in the heady exercise of power itself—of seeing other people compliantly bending
to your will and habitually deferring to you.
This constitutes a tonic that easily can lead to overindulgence and
addiction. Those who avoid this hazard do so usually by
submitting to divine authority in their personal lives. They adamantly refuse to equate themselves
with God and retain a durable sense of equality with all humanity. In the end, it is a self-serving sense of inequality
that drives the blindness and arrogance of power. The feeling of detachment from the riffraff
is a sure sign that power addiction is underway and that one’s excrement not
only stinks but ascends to the highest heavens.
