What’s your number?
How many people in the general population (in the west) are *truly* upstanding moral citizens? I think that everyone has a number, a monetary value for instance, that will get them to do practically anything.
I remember once, I was selling weed in high school, there was a guy I knew who knew somebody “higher up”. Well the introduction was made and after operating under this guy, I found out that my friend who made the original introduction was behind on payment (a lot of the product was given via consignment)… I sold him out for a couple thousand. Mind you, he wasn’t a great friend that I’ve had for ages, but surely I didn’t sell him out for peanuts either.
What are the political implications of having “a number” and does having “a number” make you a morally objectionable human being? Or is having “a number” simply part of being human?
It’s funny, were I to have access to the highest prospects of American intelligence, I wouldn’t sell that out to the Chinese for a million… but for a billion? Maybe, depending on the exact nature of the dealing and whether or not I thought I was likely to be caught.
How does this fact play into the creation and subsequent administration of nation-states?
What is the number? How does it play into corrupt officials? If a curbing method is available, what is it? Death/execution isn’t a viable answer as people will risk quite a bit against the prospect of death.
I remember once, I was selling weed in high school, there was a guy I knew who knew somebody “higher up”. Well the introduction was made and after operating under this guy, I found out that my friend who made the original introduction was behind on payment (a lot of the product was given via consignment)… I sold him out for a couple thousand. Mind you, he wasn’t a great friend that I’ve had for ages, but surely I didn’t sell him out for peanuts either.
What are the political implications of having “a number” and does having “a number” make you a morally objectionable human being? Or is having “a number” simply part of being human?
It’s funny, were I to have access to the highest prospects of American intelligence, I wouldn’t sell that out to the Chinese for a million… but for a billion? Maybe, depending on the exact nature of the dealing and whether or not I thought I was likely to be caught.
How does this fact play into the creation and subsequent administration of nation-states?
What is the number? How does it play into corrupt officials? If a curbing method is available, what is it? Death/execution isn’t a viable answer as people will risk quite a bit against the prospect of death.
