All corruption has the same forces driving it. It should therefore be viewed as one problem. The purpose here is to describe the central characteristics of corruption.

Corruption should be called a religion, because it has more of everything a formal religion has, beyond the superficialities of the building and furniture. Whereas religious persons say, come join us on Sunday; corrupters say, support us or die. Which is the more intense religion?

One of the characteristics of sin is lawlessness (1John 3:4). All corrupters feel bound in chains, and they assume their chains result from someone imposing something onto them. So they shun the imposition of laws. They do, however, use law as a club on others.

There is a major driving force flowing through the most corrupt persons and tracing back to satan which attempts to undo the ordered existence which evolves out of human attempts to solve their problems. It might appear to be anarchist, except that it isn't the absence of something; it is an overriding concern for something assumed to be vastly superior. It is assumed to be freedom.

This concept of freedom does not, of course, stand up to analysis. The freedom to sin is the freedom to enslave oneself. Christ said, "Everyone who lives by sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34). This is because the universe (the average of all minds) requires justice and destroys all sources of injustice.

But sin exists due to an ignorance of these facts, and it carries the assumption that if people could get free enough from impositions, they could solve all of their problems (through sin, of course). When they fail, or their efforts collapse, it is supposedly due to someone defying their ethic and imposing something onto them, not anything inherently wrong about their assumption of being able to make sin pay.

Another element of this mind-frame is belief that obstacles can be pretended away. This is a compartmentalization in their minds. The obstacles are associated with opponents, who are being rejected, while the idealized success is associated with self. This is a sorting process; and therefore, it doesn't register in corrupt minds as false or unreal. This mechanism gives corrupters a high resistance to rationality. Trying to reason with them doesn't work, because reason is a different mechanism.

Opposition is not tolerated. In fact, indifference is not tolerated. This is because the entire universe, including the material and objective realities, conflicts with and overwhelms attempts to make sin pay. The assumption is that increased support will overcome those forces. It's like stacking a house of cards. Getting more cards stacked up is viewed as being more successful.

This situation creates a driving force to homogenize everything. The assumption is that if everything is on the right side, and nothing is on the wrong side, there can be no failure. Having never achieved such a state does nothing to diminish the attempt.

It's important to understand the difference between homogenizing and unifying. Homogenizing is something that is done with force, while unifying is something that is done with realities. Realities and forces are in conflict with each other. The only way force can be defined philosophically is as that which conflicts with realities. It can be realities which conflict with realities creating a force. Forces can never be unified, because conflict is not unity.

In society, there are always persons who are trying to promote the values which go with the religion of corruption. Symbols are relied upon heavily to differentiate between those persons who accept the religion of corruption and those who do not. The promoters of corruption stand out like a soar thumb, because the opposite is flat and invisible consisting of the universe determining the requirements of life in an objective manner. Humans do not determine the requirements of life, which is why truth sets people free (John 8:32). Truth aligns upon the universe as the determining influence.

Power Corrupts