The Nature of Corruption

ELIZABETH GEORGE
Jan 25, 2026

When we think of corruption, we tend to think of corporate corruption or governmental corruption along the lines of a corrupt CEO making money off the backs of illegally employed workers or a banking institution turning a blind eye to laundered money or an elected official accepting a bribe in exchanged for favored treatment. But there are other forms of corruption as well, and I’d like to take a look at them:

Moral corruption is the first. It can be assigned to any individual who knowingly and willingly and, often, quite happily acts against the laws and the norms of the society in which he lives. (With apologies, I will be using masculine pronouns throughout, as I was taught in elementary school.) An obvious case would be a serial killer. Ted Bundy, for example, knew exactly what he was doing , he knew it was wrong, and he did it anyway: murdering his way from the state of Washington to the state of Florida without a qualm of conscience. But moral corruption doesn’t exist merely in realm of killers or others who knowingly engage in criminal activities. Moral corruption also exists in individuals who follow their basest inclinations, inflicting suffering on others with absolute impunity. While at the deepest levels of their psyches they know their actions are morally corrupt. But they inflict those actions on other people—or animals—anyway, having created a psychological barrier between themselves and the depravity of their behavior. The creation of this barrier involves the individual’s being able to manufacture a system of beliefs that confirm—if only for him—the righteousness of what he’s doing. An example of this might be Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s vice-president, who accepted bribes right inside the White House until he was caught and removed from office. An example might be the Watergate burglars, whose failed attempt to secure the re-election of Richard Nixon ultimately resulted in their imprisonment and his resignation. No matter that these activities were corrupt—not to mention illegal—the individuals went ahead and did them, assuring themselves as to the virtues of their actions.

Ethical corruption can exist in a person as well. Ethics involve duty, fairness, responsibilty, and virtue; it answers the questions a person can and should ask himself before taking an action that demands examination: what should I do in this situation and why? An easy application of ethical corruption would be to the student who cheats on a test, perhaps having been supplied the answers by another student who took the test earlier or a student who gained access to an answer key. Another would be the driver who hits a parked car and drives off without leaving a note declaring himself the cause of damage to the other vehicle. On a more significant level ethics can be applied to governmental officials at every level, those who have sought an office from which they are intended to do a duty to the people they represent, not with an eye toward reelection or personal enrichment but with an eye toward what is fair and responsible. Ethical corruption is a slippery slope, however, and while aspects of it require the erection of a psychological barrier to guilt, it’s easier for the corrupt person to excuse the behavior, often by looking around and deciding that “everyone’s doing it so why not me?”

Spiritual corruption: This is, perhaps, the easiest to adopt. One form of it rejects everything deemed “sinful” or “wrong,” as declared by the Ten Commandments or other religious doctrines. Hilter, for example, was raised as a Catholic. But, as a young adult, he rejected all restraints put upon him by religion because he saw in those restraints a conflict with his ideas about racial “purity”, which was at the core of his beliefs and which determined any number of his actions. Another form of spiritual corruption exists within those who espouse Christian nationalism and tout this from the pulpits of churches. Indeed, those individuals demonstrate a depth of spiritual corruption that flies in the face of the basic precepts of Christianity, and this demonstration of spiritual corruption defies the ideas and values that Jesus of Nazareth—accepted as the Christ by his followers—spoke about and demonstrated thoughout his ministry.

Aside from evaluating our own morals, ethics, and spiritual beliefs, it’s crucial to make the attempt to evaluate the morals, ethics, and spiritual beliefs of the people who want to govern us as well as the morals, ethics, and spiritual beliefs of those individuals with whom they associate. For example: if an individual running for a governmental position surrounds himself with morally, ethically, and spiritually corrupt people, how certain can we be that he himself is not morally, ethically, and spiritually corrupt?

It’s my belief that we cannot be certain at all. But there is usually evidence, if we look for it. This evidence can best be evaluated through an observation of an individuals actions. The sentence “By their fruits ye shall know them” comes from the Bible, the words of Jesus of Nazareth, and it seems to me that it can be interpreted in two ways. It can be argued that the Nazarene meant “by that which they produce ye shall know them” directly referring to that which they have given to others, to society at large, and to the culture in which they live. But it can also be argued that he meant “by their actions ye shall know them.” In in either case, that which they produce or that which they do reveals who they are. If they possess moral corruption, it is there if we want to see it. If they possess ethical corruption, it is there if we educate ourselves as to their past activities. If they possess spiritual corruption, we look for the ways in which their words and their actions reveal no grounding in any spiritual connection, or we look for the ways in which their words and their actions are grounded only in self-interest.

For me, the saddest of facts are those that visibly illustrate where we are today in America, led by a man who wears his corruption openly, served by people who do the same. As the days pass, we have been given opportunity after opportunity to listen, to watch, to read, to learn and to evaluate these individuals. Laid metaphorically at our feet are images of what is happening in our country; news articles and opinion pieces from which we can gather information about what is being done to whom, by whom, and why. From myriad sources available to us, we can make an informed determination about corruption: be it moral, ethical, or spiritual. And from that determination we can decide what our conclusions are and what our actions shall be.

The problem, of course, is that none of this is compelling as an activity. Far easier to doom scroll and comment anonymously on other people’s opinions, to entertain ourselves with videos of puppies (guilty as charged), to watch TikTok films one after another after another till we become mesmerized by the viewing, calmed by the continuous flow of wannabe celebrities dancing, playing musical instruments, demonstrating the intelligence of the border collies or the amusing nature of their Maltipoos. But as diverting as keeping our eyes fixed on the screens of our smart phones may be, the activity takes us no closer recognizing rot when its before our eyes, let alone coming up with a manner of dealing with it.

No one is coming to save us from Donald Trump, from Kristi Noem, from Pam Bondi, from Greg Bovino, from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., from John Roberts and Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kananaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, from Kash Patel, from Tulsi Gabbard, from Mike Johnson, from J.D. Vance, from Stephen Miller, from John Thune. No one. We must strive to remember that.

We must also strive to remember that we, as American citizens, hold and have always held our fate in our own hands. We are waiting for no one but ourselves to step up and begin the fight to save us.

© 2026 Elizabeth George
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104