I grew up in Venezuela in the 50s and 60s. My Dad was Venezuelan married to my Mom, while studying engineering in the U.S. His Uncle was President of Venezuela during WWII and was the sole supplier of oil to the U.S. during the conflict…the rest of the oil was supplied within the U.S. by the states. When it came time to go to boarding school in the U.S. in the mid-60s, I attended military school in the South.
What’s my point? When I left Venezuela it was becoming very corrupt. And when I came to the U.S. the Southern states were very corrupt. By the time I was in college, the Southern states were so corrupt that almost all of the sheriffs in Louisiana were indicted by the DoJ through FBI investigations. Clearly government corruption is nurtured by power acquisition and augmentation of wealth by the power brokers and wielders which are fueled by wealth seekers. This in turn serves or benefits the supporters of administrations, if not family members or friends of the corrupt machine. Let’s face it, how else can the corrupted gain wealth and influence more rapidly than through the tentacles and mechanizations of lawlessness or subterfuge that accompany graft and crime. In most places this can and has grown exponentially. Look at it now…Venezuela is so corrupt that the largest oil reserves in the world cannot sustain the Venezuelan people and contrarily the Southern U.S. states have become conservative and are setting the example for the rest of the country.
Conclusion: corruption breeds more corruption, which leads to an explosion of crime, to the point of causing decline and dissolution or absolute ineffectiveness of governments, but this can be reversed. Many Southern states are setting benchmarks for the style of governing that should be implemented by those in the Northeast, East, West and Northwest. When governments or fiefdoms halt crime and corruption early, peace and civility survive. I don’t like it but I understand why the few promote the decimation of our society. What I don’t understand is why the many, that do, continue to.
