Corruption is not an act but a condition, a personal and social state in which we become accustomed to living. The corrupt man is so closed off and contented in the complacency of his self-sufficiency that he does not allow himself to be called into question by anything or anyone. The self-confidence he has built up is based on a fraudulent behavior: he spends his life taking opportunistic shortcuts at the cost of his own and others’ dignity. The corrupt man always has the gall to say: “It wasn’t me!”—my
