"Power always corrupts the one who holds it."

Lord Acton once remarked, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” This famous quote, in my opinion, truly summarizes one theme that is continuously revisited throughout Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. And yet, it can also be applied with situations in both our historic and modern worlds. The word “power” is defined as “the ability to make choices and influence outcomes”, or, on the flip side, “the ability to manipulate and control whatever one desires”. The French Revolution and the rule of Fidel Castro are both examples of circumstances where leaders came into power and drastically misused their authority. The movie Lord of the Rings also showed an excellent example of how easily the desire for power sways even the most genuine man (or hobbit). Power does always corrupt the one who holds it, and the result of this in the past has always been... absolutely devastating.

In Socials 9, I learned about the French Revolution, and all the various families who had ruled France unchallenged for hundreds of years. Before the French Revolution, most European monarchs were corrupt to a certain extent. They had everything in the land exactly how they wanted it, and couldn't care less about their common subjects. All the wealth they continuously gained just made them want more, and resulted in them being even more brutal to the innocent people of France. One of the most infamous rulers of France was Napoleon Bonaparte. This tiny man overpowered the weak French government and proclaimed himself to be “Emperor for life”. He manipulated countries at a time while simultaneously taking away many of the peoples’ rights after his rise to power. Even though he started off as a decent ruler, the legacy he ended up leaving behind was that of a power crazed dictator.

A more recent, but still historical example was Fidel Castro’s Communist dictatorship in Cuba. True, he had been initially born into the working class, and later managed to work his way up, but his yearn for power soon became too great. He led a revolution to overthrow the former Cuban government and set himself up as dictator. However, his new-found power led to him eventually restricting all freedom of speech in Cuba and coming down hard upon anyone who opposed him in order to maintain his power. Even though he had grown up believing that the government was dishonest and vicious, he ended up becoming the very thing he had once opposed and despised – a cruel, corrupt dictator.

Finally - in the movie Lord of the Rings, many hobbits, elves, dwarfs, wizards, and men were influenced by the Ring. Gandalf was the first to reject the Ring because he did not want to be corrupted by it. This view on the nature of the Ring was enforced when Elrond, Galadriel, Aragorn and Faramir each turned down the Ring when it was offered to them. The Ring represented ultimate power and control over Middle Earth in the movie, and Frodo was chosen to bear the burden of carrying it because hobbits were the most innocent of creatures of the land. However, the desire for the Ring was so powerful that even Frodo ended up being corrupted at the end of his quest and had an extremely difficult time relinquishing his absolute power (throwing the Ring into Mount Doom). The movie also showed how changes/shifts in power and authority could often prove to be very difficult for both parties (Gollum taking the Ring from Frodo, Sam taking the Ring from Frodo, etc.)

These three points are all examples of how power has swayed people to do corrupt things. Napoleon and Castro both craved power so much that they overthrew the government and became dictators of their respective countries. They went to great lengths to keep that power, too, and maintained their positions by silencing their opposition. In LotR, many creatures of the land turned down the Ring (a metaphor for power) because they did not want to be influenced by its corrupt nature. Because of these reasons, I truly believe that power does always corrupt the one who holds it.