Power Corrupt In Macbeth

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Pages: 4

Is Power Corruptive?
A few years ago, I was a part of a volleyball team. Our team wasn’t really known for our huge amount of wins, but rather our amount of losses. That was when our head coach decided to get a new coach. Maybe this new coach would be beneficial to the team. Maybe we could actually win a game! But we didn’t receive what he hoped for. The power she had over the team would eventually lead some of the players on my team to make a hard decision.
Power is the ability to influence your followers through your behavior or actions. Power is a very difficult thing to manage. Over time, power begins to corrupt the mind and you only end up benefiting yourself instead of others. Both Jim Jones and Macbeth used their power in a corruptive
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As seen in Macbeth, as Macbeth is introduced to the fact that he can have more power and receives that power he becomes more corrupted by it. Same with a man named Jim Jones. Jim Jones was a cult leader and after being in a position of power for awhile, he was paranoid about people plotting against him. In a biography article about Jim Jones, the author states, “They would receive a cup with a red liquid that they were told contained poison, which they were ordered to drink. After 45 minutes or so, the members were told that they were not going to die, that they had just passed a loyalty test” (24). Jim let the paranoia of power go to his head leading him into doing these “suicide drills”. He thought his followers were planning to kill him or plot against him so they could destroy his position of power, yet he managed to scare his followers and still having that position of power. Jim Jones also threatened mass suicide to prevent the government from taking away his power. Jim threatened to kill hundreds of people just so he could keep his power. In the biography article the author states, “In September 1977, Jones threatened mass suicide to force the Guyanese government from taking action against him.” (page 24). Jim Jones threatened hundreds of people’s lives in order to keep himself in a position of power. Just like Macbeth and killing King Duncan just for power, Jim Jones did the same as well and killed hundreds of people so no one could get to him and take away his power. Both Macbeth and Jim Jones were corrupted by