"Power corrupts" is a well known statement and history is full of examples of this, particularly in governments around the world.
There are a number of behaviors that define humanity. I want to look at two of these (I call them Alpha and Protect factors) in relation to how we are ruled or governed. There are good and bad things from these factors when they are combined, good when governments show compassion, bad when they show bias towards a goal and ignore the cost to others. We expect our government to focus on the good points but then when things go wrong we judge them on the bad points for which there are often many due to corruption and incompetence.
It is human nature as part of the preservation instinct for humans to seek power over others, whether it be physical power, financial power, intellectual power, sexual power. These all are part of what I call an Alpha Factor that all humans have.
There is also a protection instinct that for example parents have for their family, friends have for each other and leaders should have for their people. I call this the Protect Factor
Governments should look to demonstrate the Protect Factor to protect their own and those in other parts of the world that cannot protect themselves. The Alpha factor should be used for strong leadership but always in sync with the Protect Factor. Unfortunately it is more often used for self promotion and self gain with the exclusion of the Protect Factor where it is conflicting with their power position meaning their dependent people and others often will suffer.
We expect human nature to put protection of your own over protection of others and you could argue that governments have the duty to do that to protect their own first above other but they should be open when and how they do that and not make up often shallow reasons for their actions which will only lead to distrust. We need governments with the courage to be honest, if we need to make hard decisions that will impact the lives of others we should be clear why. I understand that global politics is like a game of poker, you cannot show your cards and you sometimes need to bluff, but you have to play fair and you must not cheat.
Leaders through self interest want to stay in power and to be seen as strong above everything else and so they will plan, scheme, negotiate and often lie with whoever to stay in power and as a consequence at some point no one trusts or respects them once they have been in power for a relatively short while and there scheming catches up with them
The more complex the world gets the more the Alpha factor dominates human behavior to stay in control and as a consequence the more the people suffer from their dominance and of course we live in a world where secrets often leak and when they do everyone knows about them instantly through social media, this combined with fake news means that no politician can go long before they have to face challenges on their behavior and their honesty.
Maybe the real people in power (super Alphas) are hidden like some sect you read about in fiction and they use those who have a dominant Alpha factor to orchestrate there plans and replace them when they no longer have that power.
Ordinary people in the west are more and more demanding protection for themselves and forgetting about the protection of others. It is natural not to have primary concern about the plight of others and certainly not to weaken your own situation by supporting protection of others you do not know. But that is short sighted as we live in a world very much politically and economically connected whether in relationships or as competitors.
In the west for mostly historical reasons we have the upper hand but that is changing and we see the west now starting to fall behind the growth of countries outside of the G7. If this continues then it is very likely at some point that we may need the protection of other countries ourselves. However they have leaders just like ours and will treat us in the same way we have historically treated them and we will suffer.
So whats the answer? Obviously the only real answer is to change human nature because if we just make rules, laws, new alliances and add to the bureaucracy then we just make things worse but how can we change human nature which has developed over tens of thousands of years?
If we could then firstly we need a much smaller population, probably maximum of 2 billion worldwide, secondly we need to leverage technology to ensure we all globally have food, water, shelter and protection. Thirdly we have to develop a new concept of a true quality of life i.e. social activities, education opportunities, leisure options for all abilities.
Protection should not be necessary especially as this leads to leadership and dominance which will start the whole cycle again, we have to ensure that the whole world does not need to be protected from others and that we are not frightened of others, our education system should focus on the habits of caring and sharing and no longer on competition and winning so there is no drive to dominate any more and anyone who does develop those tendencies would not fit in.
This will never happen as we would most likely end up with a rogue group that took to dominate others and yep we are there again.
So in truth its just not going to change, even if we have a pandemic or a world war reducing the population substantially we will still see Alpha factor leaders start to rule again.
So we will continue to see humanity continue to see dominant leaders and people who will be more and more ruthless in their attitude to others as resources become more scarce.
The real solution will not be found in the human species but in a new species that will come after our's has become extinct and they hopefully will be so different in their structure that they will be neither wild beasts tearing each other apart or form civilisations who also end up tearing themselves apart.