Virtually everybody is corrupt more or less.
When doctors prescribe too many opioids, it is not typically because they are corrupt; more often, they are rushed, uninformed, or concerned about their patient-satisfaction ratings.
It is assumed that the adversary is not able to corrupt more than 1/3 of the authorities.
The Advisory Group report sums it up: "If Russia is not yet 'lost,' it is indisputably more unstable, more corrupt, more lawless and vastly more hostile to the United States than it was when President Clinton and Vice President Gore took office".
Does anyone genuinely believe that, say, the government of Zimbabwe would suddenly become more democratic, less corrupt, more respectful of individual property rights if its international loans were erased?
The state of our nation under Obama has become more bureaucratic, more debt-ridden, more violent, more militarized, more fascist, more lawless, more invasive, more corrupt, more untrustworthy, more mired in war, and more unresponsive to the wishes and needs of the electorate.
Was he more corrupt — or more corrupting to our democratic ideals — than that other Republican turned independent mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who is said to be incorruptible because he is so stupefyingly rich, but who used his power to persuade the City Council to overrule two voter referendums in favor of term limits and have a third term at New York's City Hall?
In the long run, developing countries blessed with economically valuable resources like oil tend to end up poorer, more corrupt, and more likely to be at each other's throats with knives.
Only if his story is something more complicated and compelling than "power corrupts and drug-aided power corrupts more quickly" can "Limitless" transcend its initial limitations.
The next challenge is finding an inclusive, but systematic way of sketching out the road map to a less-corrupt, more vibrant and accountable Philippines.
