Description:
Having
served my country as a military conscript full-time for 30 months and another
11 years since then as a reservist, I have had ample opportunities to observe
the interactions amongst persons divided by a huge gulf of power, namely,
commanders and enlisted men. All too
often, I have observed commanders fall short of the trust placed in them and,
whether out of greed, ambition, ignorance, callousness, negligence, malice or
some combination of all the above, abuse the power they wield to affect the
lives of those beneath them with impunity, acting with utter disregard for the damage
they stand to cause those beneath them.
While mechanisms for redress officially exist, these
are laughable at best – so-called anonymous helplines report plaintiffs’
identities back to the unit commanders being complained against, exposing them
to further punitive action. External
boards of enquiry are inevitably staffed by members of the senior officers’ ‘old
boys network’ and inevitably summarily dismiss complaints and cover up cases to
further one anothers’ political agendas.
Feelings: Having been (and
continuing to be) an enlisted man myself who has taken his fair share of abuse
from uncaring superiors, my sympathies lie with those who, like myself, have
been disempowered by this or any other institution that divides people within
it according to those who have power and those who do not.
Evaluation:
As I have stated earlier, while an organisation needs clear lines of
accountability and chains of command to function smoothly, such accountability
needs to be mutual. Those in possession
of power need to be held accountable to those beneath them in the hierarchy and
also to the laws of the organisation, without fear or favour. If not, power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely, in the words of the old saying.
Analysis: Being in positions of power over others has
been linked to five key antisocial behaviours – narcissism, lying, hypocrisy,
overconfidence
and lack
of compassion. With this in mind,
it may be extrapolated how easily leaders vested with far-reaching powers and
negligible accountability for their actions may easily devolve into chronically
abusive patterns of behaviour.
Conclusion: Power without accountability has great
potential for degenerating into abuse of those over whom power is held. The greater the power vested in an individual
or institution, the more stringent the checks and balances on that individual
or institution must be to prevent such abuses.
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