power

It has long been said that money, or more correctly love of money, is the root of all evil. I do not believe that is true. If there is a root of all evil it is in my opinion love of power. What does rape have to do with money? Money gives you power. The world is grievously plagued, possibly to our perish, with people who have gained or had handed to them staggering amounts of power. And as the well known saying goes, which I generally agree with, power corrupts. That is what Lord of the Rings is all about. Love of power and addiction to it. Power has a tremendous lure to many people and the need for it can be every bit as addicting as any drug. The huge problem of course is that many people who seek power are  not good people. That is frequently why they seek power.  And then the need for and love of power overcomes their concern for others. And the more power that a person has the more harm that they can do. There are learned and studied people who suggest, probably correctly, that a lot of very powerful people are psychopaths. And many other powerful people, while not full blown psychopaths, have some tendencies towards it. They are people without consciences or concern for their fellow human beings. This is not to say that there are no good people who have power. There are some. But they are forced to try to operate in environments that are largely controlled by people who are not good.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2011/06/14/why-some-psychopaths-make-great-ceos/
http://www.sott.net/article/244013-Psychopaths-in-business-and-politics-Beware
 There will be different opinions on which powerful figures fit into this category but I suspect that almost everybody will agree that is is a real problem. And even those powerful figures who are not clearly psychopathic often find themselves in situations in which they are required to act in ways that a psychopath would act. They may well feel bad about what they do but they have no choice if they are to hold on to their power. It is part of their job. Corporations and often governments and the military and the worlds of the rich and powerful  are ruthless places where human values are often spit upon.
  The only solution that I see to this problem is to not let anybody get tremendous wealth and power. Neither should we seek power ourselves. Human affairs and the proper running of the world do not require people who have vast power over others. The existence of very powerful people naturally causes democracy and the will of the people to be undermined.
  You may deduce from what I have said here that I do not believe that our current system of electing officials works. You would deduce correctly