Active Thinking Topic 93  -   For & Against Corruption


11, 15 October 2024

Recommended viewing: RepresentUs (30 Apr 2015) "Corruption is Legal in America" @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig 

Talking Points:

1. What exactly is corruption, in your view?

2. Have you ever worked in a place that was corruption free, even a little?

3. What causes corruption, what stops it?

4. How is corruption seen and experienced differently in different countries?

5. Exposing corruption can be dangerous for individuals. Are laws needed to protect whistle blowers?

6. When has "action against corruption" been misused?

7. In a corrupt company, or a corrupt country, personal promotion might be impossible without acting corruptly yourself. Your honesty might be distrusted in such a corrupt culture. What can you do?

8. If corruption can never be entirely eliminated, how much corruption should be tolerated, and what kind of corruption might be tolerated?

9. Which professions do you think are the most corrupt, and which are the least corrupt? Is corruptions in a profession always about money?

10. A building is a physical product. You can see if it was actually built. Education produces 'virtual products' (e.g. knowledge by a student). You often can't "see" a person's knowledge. What are the opportunities for corruption in education systems?

Extra Reading

RepresentUs (30 Apr 2015) "Corruption is Legal in America" @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig 

Annika Smethurst (April 19, 2023) "This line from IBAC’s latest scathing report should alarm Victorians" The Age @ https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/this-line-from-ibac-s-latest-scathing-report-should-alarm-victorians-20230418-p5d1dl.html  [Quote: "Found on page six, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) concludes that when a multimillion-dollar training contract was awarded to a Labor-linked union, safeguards designed to ensure integrity were bypassed and a conflict of interest ignored. A report into the Andrews government’s awarding of a multimillion dollar training contract to a Labor-linked union exposes failings and unethical conduct. As a result, a union with no relevant experience was given favourable treatment and privileged access to the government that was denied to others. The combined effect of these failings and unethical conduct resulted in a contract that should not have been entered into with the union and an outcome which was not in the public interest.”

Sherryn Groch (April 19, 2023) "Putin is one of the world’s richest men. But the money isn’t in his name - An unprecedented rain of Western sanctions has fallen on Russia’s elite. How are its billionaires fighting to get their money (and yachts) back? And how are investigators following the money?". The Age @ https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/putin-is-one-of-the-world-s-richest-men-but-the-money-isn-t-in-his-name-20230308-p5cqbl.html 

James D. Long (30 Jun 2016) "Fighting Corruption in the Developing World" @
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFIgqzj4v70 

The Traveler (19 Nov 2022) "Singapore: How to Stop Corruption" @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Z4JgEF5Ik

Thor May (August 2015) "Fuzzy Degrees of Freedom – When is the Law a Burden?" @ http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/Rules-are-for-the-command-of-fools.htm 

Thor May (2014) "Fakes, liars, cheats, deceivers, animals in the forest" @ http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/FakesLiarst.htm  [Quote: "It’s all around us. From face lifts to luxury cars on hire purchase, from inflated CVs to exaggerated job titles, from company publicity material to the spin that governments put on their failures and deceptions. At what point does fakery become fraud? Would the world be a duller place without it?"]

Thor May (2014) "Crime without Punishment - the journey from means to ends" @ http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/CrimeWithoutPunishment.htm  [Quote: "Sooner or later everyone – individuals, governments, companies – has to make choices about whether to put aside certain values to achieve a desired end. Michael Pascoe, an Australian financial journalist, has recently discussed this at http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/abandon-principles-and-pay-the-price-20140331-35tz4.html  "]

Thor May (2012) "The Contest for Competence" @ http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/competence.html  [Quote: "If some people don't break the rules sometimes, then a normal society will cease to function. Breaking the wrong rules for the wrong reasons is like breaking legs though. And if everyone breaks the rules, then a society will disintegrate. A paradox? Yes. See how this cake is baked... "]

Thor May (2003) "The Case for Favoritism" @ http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/favoritism.html  [Quote: "Imagine the perfect meritocracy. Now think again. In our perfect meritocracy prizes go to the most able, the most worthy, the best ... But who is to decide the most able, worthy or best ? A fair system you say, innocent of human bias, objective in its evaluation. That's nice. How many fair systems do you know?"]

RepresentUs (5 Oct 2018) "The Strategy to End Corruption - This is how we fix politics." @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTP4uvIFu5c&t=0s  [reference: USA politics]

Silicon Curtain (25 Sept 2024) "David Gioe, Huw Dylan & Elena Grossfeld: Putin’s (mis)Management of Russian Intelligence Assessments" [1:11:51] @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr39f3AnLow  [TM, comment: This is a long but fascinating interview of specialists in intelligence gathering for governments, and its limitations. The focus is Putin's Russia where layered corruption is a system of control and governance. The role of intelligence organizations in this environment is to filter out any initiative or action or information which will displease the leader.]

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  For & Against Corruption (c) Thor May 2024

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