The more things change
the more they stay the same.
What’s interesting about this particular take on corrupt organizations is that the person talking about it is highly corrupt. It’s like Bernie Madoff talking about the corrupted climate of world. I suppose, though, that the corrupt often find justification in the corruption. They create by saying, “Look – it’s everywhere. Everyone’s doing it. I’m not the problem – the corrupt currents are.”
As if people don’t make the culture
or organizations
as if action upon action doesn’t stack up to make
the water what it is.
It is remarkable, though, that these words are as true today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. Money can still buy you out of trouble can still manipulate the law.
UPDATE 2016:
I responded to this line, probably a year and a half ago. Wrote this down a year and a half ago. The world has changed rather a lot since then. My thoughts about this have not changed. But now the example is much more immediate. I would not use Bernie Madoff today. No, the best example is the man who cried and cried about corruption in politics while being the most corrupt politician imaginable. I mean… it’s laughable now. If it weren’t so horribly current.