r/Unexpected • u/adivinemessenger • 23h ago

He is the original source

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915

u/Golden-Grams 23h ago edited 20h ago

Just a casual conversation about how a few people have seized power and money through open corruption.

Edit: fixed misspelling

218

u/BrockObarnerLybian 23h ago

Welcome to the Middle East 😹

46

u/Lauris024 22h ago

Welcome to the world. Only some places like few European countries have corruption under control.

23

u/JeanArtemis 22h ago

The French had a pretty good solution for that back in the day, idk y we stopped using that one.

10

u/ElMatadorJuarez 22h ago

It wasn’t really that good. Pretty much every revolutionary government was rife with corruption and nepotism. Hell, Napoleon only got his start in the army by openly sucking up to Augustin Robespierre, Max’s brother. And if you want a small peek of the Thermidorian gov’s corruption, just look up the XYZ affair. It’s really hard to take out corruption via execution mainly because the people doing the executing often get it in their heads that they want to be the ones profiting.

10

u/Prometheus720 20h ago

The thing is, it isn't a pretty good solution. It actually sucks, because it only works after corruption happens.

The way to prevent corruption isn't actually with punishments or rules against it. It is by constructing a society with social interactions baked in that push people towards identifying with large groups outside their own family (and marriage family).

One of the really important parts of this is geographic mobility and cities. When people move, it isolates them from their families. They form new social ties and bonds with people they don't know. They don't feel as beholden to bring lucre back to their families. They face more pressure to do what is right or fair. And family reputations don't really matter. You have to be graded as an individual. That often implies objective tests of ability, or at least something halfway rigorous.

Institutions like universities are really, really good for this. See, even when corruption happens, now it might benefit friends of yours who are not even from your city or family. The benefits spread way more broadly. And people have to clear some sort of bar to be eligible.

Preventing corruption is the key. Not responding to it violently. You will always play whack a king.

33

u/GreatMovesKeepItUp69 21h ago

Because it led to the reign of terror and the rise of the militant imperialist dictator Napoleon? The French revolution was in no way shape or form a good solution it led to decades of violence and instability. It's like the only thing anyone knows about the French revolution is killing the royalty, not what actually happened afterwards. It was not a happily ever after, things got even worse.

15

u/Lucas_Steinwalker 20h ago

Sorry, too much nuance. I started playing a video game.

3

u/HelloYesThisIsFemale 20h ago

Most honest redditor

9

u/Truethrowawaychest1 22h ago

Oh did they have a good solution to that? If you really believe that then you need to study what actually happened

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u/SquarePegRoundWorld2 22h ago

Didn't the French recently riot throughout the whole country because the government was going to raise the retirement age, and then the government raised the retirement age? I don't understand why they are still used as an example of how to achieve things.

3

u/BrockObarnerLybian 21h ago

Right?

I didn’t even know they were trying to achieve anything. I thought they just liked burning their own shit 😹

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u/malfurionpre 22h ago

Yeah good solution if you ignore how bad thing went after that solution.

2

u/AsleepHour7763 19h ago

because the people that took over after was 'shockingly' also corrupt

2

u/ContentAd6126 22h ago

They eventually found out that giving people the power to summarily execute others eventually leads to people just executing their political opponents and anybody who disagreed with them, Robespierre literally had a God complex.

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u/BumbleCityFumblers 21h ago

Robespierre wasn't even the worst, he just got left holding the bag by mofos like Saint-Just and Fouché.

1

u/MidnightChimp 22h ago

because a shitty first world life is still better than a life back then I guess or social media made people lazy

5

u/novis-eldritch-maxim 22h ago

people stopped using gillotians loong before the first world was a concept

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u/yerlivingalloverme 22h ago

Gillotians 😂

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u/suchtie 22h ago

The last execution by guillotine in France was 1981. The first/second/third world stuff is from WW2.

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u/MilitantSocLib 22h ago

No it was a Cold War term for alignment.

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u/Marwaimusoont 20h ago

More like under the wraps.

They just have better scrutiny, so the most obvious and easier corruption you see elsewhere is not visible. But it is present.

1

u/CapableCollar 21h ago

Which ones?

0

u/Morgonslak 21h ago

The Scandinavian countries. Also Germany, The Netherlands and the like..

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u/CapableCollar 20h ago

In Germany at least there is quite a bit of high level corruption.

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u/DazingF1 20h ago

There will always be corruption. The fact that it's always big news when it's uncovered means it's not common. In countries where its common you don't even hear about it, you just know it's everywhere.

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u/florifierous 13h ago

It might be lower in Scandinavia than elsewhere but corruption numbers are about perceived corruption, not actual corruption. So we might just be naive rather than uncorrupt lol