It seems everywhere you turn — government, corporations, religion, education — there’s corruption. So much so that many people seem to think that honesty is a thing of the past. (These people often forget that the past was full of just as much corruption…maybe even more.) Are we all doomed to live in a world where the little guy is crushed beneath the boots of those cheating their way to the top, or is that view of the world not really justified? That’s what we’re talking about on this week’s episode of Men in Gorilla Suits.

We begin the episode talking about the first example of corruption we can remember (hint: Christopher was born in Chicago and raised in the area). After that, we discuss the first time we were on either side of something corrupt (as the victim or the one actually being corrupt).

We get a little bogged down in semantics when we talk about whether or not absolute power corrupts absolutely — and then we talk about how big a problem corruption is where we live.

When most people think about corruption, they think about government. We talk about how big we think corruption is on a federal level, and then jump to corporations (including if we’ve ever seen corruption at any of the places we’ve worked).

We step away from the idea that corruption is reserved solely for the powerful and talk about other forms of corruption worthy of concern. Next, we discuss the most corrupt organizations we’ve heard about.

It seems like every week (or several times a week) there’s a new video of corrupt police activity. We talk about whether or not police departments are more corrupt today than they were in the past, and then…we jump to the National Football League. (Because why not?! Actually, it was a talk about the NFL that triggered this episode for Gorilla Shawn.) If we were made commissioner of the NFL, find out if we’d give in to corruption…and how long it would take either of us to become corrupt.

We wrap up the episode talking about what we can do in the future to slow down or even stop corruption…or if it’s just something we’ll always live with.

Leave a comment below and we’ll be sure that if either of us are ever made President of the United States, we’ll give you the cabinet position of your choice!

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