Weekly: Week 4b, March 4th

Question: Does Power Corrupt? How or How Not? Why or Why Not? Do you think Alexander was corrupted? And who influenced whom the most: Did Persia become more Greek or did Alexander becoming more Persian? 

I believe that power does corrupt. It not only transforms people, but it can transform cities, citizens, and even entire countries. People what power and strive to be all powerful, when not everyone can. Many people can be directed in one way or another by this feeling of power, too. It can drive them to do unthinkable things. Alexander was a perfect example of this. He was driven by power to do anything and everything to become almighty. He even said he was immoral and he was never able to die. That part didn’t work out in his favor because he did end up dying. Oddly, he did not die in battle or from power, simply from a fever. Power indeed does corrupt; it can take over everything.

Power can corrupt people because it becomes everything they think about. All these people think about is how they can become more powerful and what else they can take over. These leaders that have this power become so obsessed with it. Once they find out what they can do with all this power that is all they want to do. They have so much power and rule over something and just want more of it. They get a tremendous amount of strength and have rule over land. Being in control brings great joy to some people. That’s why they become leaders. But some people become a little too overjoyed with power. They almost go insane. Power does some weird things to people, no matter if they are corrupted or not.

A great example of this would be Adolf Hitler. He was a leader in Germany from 1934 to 1945. When Hitler became president in Germany, all he wanted was total and complete power. First he completely took over Germany, ridding them of all Jewish people. He then attempted and succeeded in taking over other countries. His goal even was to take over the entire world. Even though he was stopped, Hitler was definitely a perfect example of someone being corrupted by power. All Hitler wanted was to be the only leader and for be in command of everything.

I think that Alexander was definitely corrupt by power. He became leader after his father’s death and then only focused on his power over everything. He started by taking out revenge on others for his father’s death. That could almost be understandable. Then he started basically becoming obsessed with defeating people and making himself more powerful.  That became his main focus, and at times, it was his only focus. He didn’t ever believe that he would lose or be defeated. He believed himself to be immoral and could never die. He let power get the best of him and became someone he never would’ve been before.

I think that Alexander became more Persian. He started being more like the Persian Empire was. He started making his army very big and mighty like the Persian’s army was. He modeled his empire after them, too. At one point, he even started to dress like a Persian and act like one too. His army was getting worried about him at this point and wanted him to come back with them. It ended up that he actually was doing this so that he could defeat them. HE was still being like the Persian Empire because he was deceiving and manipulative in his ways to gain all and complete power. Once again, power affected the way Alexander acted and lived.