Speaker 1: Pareto didn't start with theories about right or wrong. He
Speaker 1: started by watching how people actually behave. He saw that
Speaker 1: most of what we call rational behavior isn't rational at all.
Speaker 1: Its instinct dressed up as logic. People act first, then
Speaker 1: find a story to explain why they acted that way.
Speaker 1: He called these two layers residues and derivations. Residues are
Speaker 1: the deep emotional instincts that drive all human behavior. They're
Speaker 1: not moral or immoral, they just exist. Some residues push
Speaker 1: people to create, to connect, to innovate when old systems fail.
Speaker 1: Others make people protect what they have, defend stability, and
Speaker 1: obey authority. Both are ancient survival tools. One helps us
Speaker 1: move forward, the other keeps us from falling apart. Now.
Speaker 1: Derivations are the stories we build on top of those instincts.
Speaker 1: They're the words, slogans, and moral arguments that make our
Speaker 1: instincts look intelligent. A politician says he's preserving national security.
Speaker 1: A company says it's maximizing efficiency. An employee says I'm
Speaker 1: just being practical. All those phrases sound noble, but underneath
Speaker 1: they come from the same residues fear, ambition, loyalty, or
Speaker 1: self preservation. That's why Pereto believed corruption isn't simply a
Speaker 1: moral failure. It's the natural result of two forces inside
Speaker 1: every person, one that wants change and one that fears it.
Speaker 1: When those forces collide, people start to bend rules, create justifications,
Speaker 1: and call it common sense. We don't reason our way
Speaker 1: into corruption, we justify it after, because deep down, we're
Speaker 1: all driven by residues that existed long before we learn
Speaker 1: to call them right or wrong. And once you understand that,
Speaker 1: corruption stops looking like a random mistake. It starts looking
Speaker 1: like a mirror of how humans survive together, Messy, clever,
Speaker 1: and necessary. Once pareto explained residues and derivations, he showed
Speaker 1: us something even more uncomfortable. Humans don't just act on instinct.
Speaker 1: We dress instinct in language. We do it to feel clean.
Speaker 1: We take a selfish move and give it a noble name.
Speaker 1: A company doesn't say we're paying people to stay silent.
Speaker 1: It says we're offering incentives. A politician doesn't say I'm
Speaker 1: rewarding loyalty. He says I'm maintaining stability. An employee doesn't
Speaker 1: say I'm lying to keep my job. She says I'm
Speaker 1: being professional. Words become a kind of moral soap. They
Speaker 1: wash away the dirt so we can look at ourselves
Speaker 1: in the mirror. That's what Parreto called derivations, stories that
Speaker 1: make our instincts sound righteous. Because most people can't live
Speaker 1: seeing themselves as corrupt, we need the language to make
Speaker 1: wrong things feel right. We rename manipulation as diplomacy, greed
Speaker 1: as ambition, fear as loyalty. We turn our compromises into virtues,
Speaker 1: and once everyone starts using the same language, the lie
Speaker 1: becomes normal. Corruption doesn't always need to hide, it just
Speaker 1: needs a better vocabulary. The older words bribery, deception, favor
Speaker 1: become replaced by modern ones facilitation, networking, strategic partnership, different words,
Speaker 1: same transaction. That's why Pereto believed language doesn't purify society,
Speaker 1: it disguises it. The more polished our words become, the
Speaker 1: deeper the dishonesty can hide. So corruption survives not by force,
Speaker 1: but by tone. It learns to sound polite, It learns
Speaker 1: to sound professional, It learns to sound like progress. Don't
Speaker 1: destroy corruption by renaming it. We keep it alive every
Speaker 1: time we pretend our words are cleaner than our actions.
Speaker 1: Pareto believed that corruption isn't random, It's part of a cycle,
Speaker 1: a rhythm built into every human system, and that rhythm
Speaker 1: is driven by two kinds of people. He called them
Speaker 1: the foxes and the lions. The foxes are clever, They
Speaker 1: adapt fast. They talk their way around problems. They negotiate,
Speaker 1: they persuade, They find shortcuts when rules get in the way.
Speaker 1: They keep society flexible. They're the innovators, the diplomats, the
Speaker 1: deal makers, the ones who know how to bend reality
Speaker 1: just enough to make it work. The lions are different.
Speaker 1: They're proud, discipline, loyal to structure. They believe in strength,
Speaker 1: in rules, in honor. They hate the shortcuts that foxes love.
Speaker 1: They bring stability, courage, and order, but they also make
Speaker 1: the system rigid. Too many lines lions, and society becomes
Speaker 1: a cage, safe but unable to change. Pareto said, every
Speaker 1: society swings between these two forces. The foxes rise first,
Speaker 1: using charm and flexibility to open new doors. They build wealth,
Speaker 1: make deals, and rewrite rules. But over time they begin
Speaker 1: to cheat the system that fed them. They talk too much,
Speaker 1: they promise too much. People lose trust. Then the lions
Speaker 1: come back. They march in, promising order, discipline, and justice.
Speaker 1: They clean up the mess left by the foxes. They
Speaker 1: restore honesty, but also slow everything down again, and once
Speaker 1: the lions grow old and stubborn, the foxes return, different faces,
Speaker 1: same pattern. That's why Parreto saw corruption as part of
Speaker 1: the system's heartbeat. Foxes bend rules to keep the world moving,
Speaker 1: Lions enforce them to keep it from falling apart. Society
Speaker 1: swings between the cunning and the strict. Both keep it alive.
Speaker 1: When one disappears completely, the system dies. Pareto believe that
Speaker 1: corruption in its earliest form isn't evil, it's functional. It
Speaker 1: appears when the system is too rigid to serve the
Speaker 1: people living inside it, When rules choke motion, corruption becomes
Speaker 1: the oil that keeps the machine from tearing itself apart.
Speaker 1: Think of a country where bureaucracy suffocates progress. People still
Speaker 1: need to get things done, so they find a way
Speaker 1: around the wall. They make side payments, personal calls, quiet deals,
Speaker 1: not because they're trying to destroy the rules, but because
Speaker 1: they're trying to make life move again. That's functional corruption,
Speaker 1: the quick fix, the temporary bridge. It exists in every
Speaker 1: level of life. In business, when employees adjust the process
Speaker 1: to meet impossible deadlines. In education, when students trade effort
Speaker 1: for connections to a class. In relationships, when honesty is
Speaker 1: softened to keep things calm. Everywhere you look, people bend
Speaker 1: the structure slightly just to keep it breathing. Pareto would
Speaker 1: say this is not moral decay. It's the human response
Speaker 1: to pressure. When the design of the system no longer
Speaker 1: fits reality, people improvise. They build invisible networks to replace
Speaker 1: slow official ones. It's ugly, but it works for a while.
Speaker 1: The danger, though, is that once a system learns it
Speaker 1: can rely on corruption to function, it stops fixing itself.
Speaker 1: The shortcut becomes the standard, the patch becomes permanent, and
Speaker 1: what once helped the system survive now begins to weaken
Speaker 1: it from the inside. Corruption doesn't destroy order, it lubricates
Speaker 1: broken systems. It's the dirty oil that keeps the engine
Speaker 1: running until the day the oil replaces the engine Itselfunctional
Speaker 1: corruption can keep a system alive, but only for a time.
Speaker 1: There's a line, a thin one, between what helps a
Speaker 1: machine run and what eats it from the inside. Pareto
Speaker 1: called this the moment when corruption stops being a tool
Speaker 1: and becomes a parasite. In the beginning, corruption works like
Speaker 1: a valve. It releases pressure, It lets people breathe when
Speaker 1: rules are too tight. But as the valve stays open
Speaker 1: too long, something shifts. It's no longer a safety release.
Speaker 1: It's a leak, and leaks spread quietly until the whole
Speaker 1: structure begins to rot. That's predatory corruption, when those in
Speaker 1: power no longer use shortcuts to survive, but to feed themselves.
Speaker 1: It's when the small favor becomes an expectation, when the
Speaker 1: thank you gift becomes a fee, When every door, every signature,
Speaker 1: every opportunity comes with a silent price tag. You can
Speaker 1: feel it in a country where people stop believe anything
Speaker 1: will change, where they still obey the rules but no
Speaker 1: longer respect them, where honesty becomes foolish and cynicism becomes wisdom,
Speaker 1: where people start saying that's just how things are. That's
Speaker 1: when the system dies on the inside. It's still standing,
Speaker 1: but hollow. It no longer protects people, It protects itself.
Speaker 1: The networks that once kept it alive now drain its strength.
Speaker 1: The clever become the predators, the honest become the prey.
Speaker 1: Pareto warned that every society eventually reaches this point when
Speaker 1: corruption grows from function to addiction, when it stops fixing
Speaker 1: the cracks and starts widening them. When the valve becomes attacks,
Speaker 1: the engine dies because at that moment, corruption isn't saving
Speaker 1: the system anymore, it's consuming it. Slowly, efficiently, and without shame.
Speaker 1: Pareto believed corruption never truly disapp It just changes hands.
Speaker 1: When one group becomes too corrupt to function, another rises
Speaker 1: to replace it. He called this the circulation of elites,
Speaker 1: the constant rotation of power that keeps society alive but
Speaker 1: never pure. It starts the same way every time. The foxes, clever, flexible, persuasive,
Speaker 1: rise to power through charm and innovation. They promise growth,
Speaker 1: progress and freedom. They build bridges, make deals, connect worlds
Speaker 1: that once stood apart. At first, there necessary, they make
Speaker 1: things move, But as their influence grows, so does their appetite.
Speaker 1: The deals become darker, the bridges become toll gates. The
Speaker 1: same cleverness that once created opportunity now feeds corruption. And
Speaker 1: when the public loses faith, the lions return. They arrive angry, disciplined,
Speaker 1: and ready to clean house. They preach law, order, and morality.
Speaker 1: They punish the corrupt, restore discipline, and promise to end
Speaker 1: the chaos left by the foxes. For a while, society
Speaker 1: breathes again. Things feel honest, predictable, stable, But stability slowly
Speaker 1: turns into stagnation. Rules pile up, freedom shrinks. The lions
Speaker 1: grow rigid, proud, and blind to the small cracks forming
Speaker 1: beneath their feet, until new foxes appear, younger, sharper, whispering,
Speaker 1: we can make it work again, and the cycle begins
Speaker 1: all over. Pereto saw this not as tragedy but as pattern,
Speaker 1: the way human systems renew themselves. When corruption suffocates under
Speaker 1: its own weight, new power rises to clean it. But
Speaker 1: that new power, too will eventually corrode. Different names, different faces,
Speaker 1: same function. Power doesn't end corruption, It only changes its accent,
Speaker 1: because every new elite eventually learns the same truth that
Speaker 1: the system can't survive on purity alone. It needs compromise
Speaker 1: to breathe, and every compromise, no matter how noble it sounds,
Speaker 1: carries the seed of the next corruption. Corruption feels distant
Speaker 1: when we talk about government's money and power, but Pareto
Speaker 1: would say it lives much closer inside the everyday compromises
Speaker 1: that hold our lives together. The same instincts that twist
Speaker 1: nations also shape families, offices, schools, and even friendships at home.
Speaker 1: Corruption begins in the name of peace. You say you
Speaker 1: agree just to end the argument. You tell a white
Speaker 1: lie to keep the atmosphere calm. You choose comfort over truth.
Speaker 1: You call it maturity, but it's the same instinct bending
Speaker 1: honesty to protect stability. At work, it hides behind words
Speaker 1: like teamwork and professionalism. You see mistakes and stay silent.
Speaker 1: You praise people you don't respect. You follow decisions you
Speaker 1: know are wrong because opposing them might cost you your job.
Speaker 1: The company calls it loyalty. You call it strategy. Pareto
Speaker 1: would call it a survival deal. Functional corruption in its
Speaker 1: smallest form in schools, it looks different but feels the same.
Speaker 1: Grades matter more than learning, Students cheat a little, teachers
Speaker 1: ignore it. Just this once, everyone pretends it's fine because
Speaker 1: the system values results, not truth, and slowly deception becomes education. Online,
Speaker 1: it becomes performance. People curate their lives to appear moral, enlightened, superior.
Speaker 1: We call it virtue, but it's just branding. We trade
Speaker 1: authenticity for approval, honesty, for attention. We build perfect versions
Speaker 1: of ourselves and sell them. These aren't crimes. They're quiet negotiations,
Speaker 1: tiny exchanges between truth and comfort that make modern life
Speaker 1: run smoothly. But they come at a cost. Each compromise
Speaker 1: makes honesty rarer and self deception easier. We start to
Speaker 1: believe the stories we invent. That's why Pereto said corruption
Speaker 1: isn't confined to the top. It's the foundation that holds
Speaker 1: everything together when trust can't. It's the invisible agreement we
Speaker 1: all sign every day to keep our own small worlds
Speaker 1: from collapsing. The corruption we hate in power is the
Speaker 1: same one we use to survive, and until we see that,
Speaker 1: every system we build will keep repeating the same pattern,
Speaker 1: from the boardroom to the living room, from nations to hearts.
Speaker 1: Every time a society realizes how corrupt it has become,
Speaker 1: it dreams of cleansing itself. People want revolutions, reform, rebirth.
Speaker 1: They imagine a world without lies, without backroom deals, without
Speaker 1: double faces. But Pereto warned that dream always breaks the
Speaker 1: same way, because you can't erase corruption. You can only
Speaker 1: change how much the system depends on it. Corruption doesn't
Speaker 1: survive because people love it. It survives because systems need
Speaker 1: it to fill the gaps that rules can't cover. When
Speaker 1: honesty alone can't make things move, people invent a short cut.
Speaker 1: When trust disappears, they replace it with favors. When ideals fail,
Speaker 1: they use instinct. You can't simply delete that mechanism. You
Speaker 1: can't outlaw human nature. That's why societies swing like pendulums,
Speaker 1: from order to decay, from purity to compromise, from reform
Speaker 1: to relapse. Each side believes it's fixing the last one,
Speaker 1: but both are part of the same cycle. The truth is,
Speaker 1: corruption doesn't fall by punishment or outrage. It falls when
Speaker 1: it stops being useful, when the system itself makes honesty
Speaker 1: practical again, when following the rule is faster, cheaper, and
Speaker 1: smarter than breaking it. Pareto would say that real progress
Speaker 1: doesn't come from purity. It comes from design, from building
Speaker 1: structures where doing the right thing is the easiest thing,
Speaker 1: where integrity pays better than deception. You can't destroy corruption
Speaker 1: with anger. You starve it by making honesty useful again.
Speaker 1: That's the paradox of every civilization. The cleaner it tries
Speaker 1: to become, the more it relies on the same dirty
Speaker 1: tricks to stay clean. The goal isn't to end corruption forever.
Speaker 1: The goal is to make the system strong enough that
Speaker 1: corruption becomes unnecessary and weak enough that when it appears,
Speaker 1: it can't rule. Pareto never promised a way out of corruption.
Speaker 1: He only showed us how it works, how every society,
Speaker 1: every company, every person ends up building small lies to
Speaker 1: keep life moving. But he also left us with a challenge.
Speaker 1: If you can't clean the world, how do you stay
Speaker 1: clean in it? The first step is clarity. You can't
Speaker 1: fight what you don't see. You have to recognize how
Speaker 1: the game works, who benefits, who pretends, who pays the price.
Speaker 1: Once you understand that, you stop being upon moved by
Speaker 1: unseen hands. You start playing with awareness. The second step
Speaker 1: is leverage. In a dirty system, survival favors those who
Speaker 1: have something real to offer. When your value depends on skill, knowledge,
Speaker 1: or integrity, you don't have to bend as often. You
Speaker 1: can stand straighter, because the more independent you are, the
Speaker 1: less you need to trade truth for safety. The third
Speaker 1: step is distance. Don't let the game swallow you. You
Speaker 1: can live inside a flawed system without becoming part of
Speaker 1: its flaw. Can navigate politics without turning political. You can
Speaker 1: work among liars without learning their tone. It's not about purity,
Speaker 1: it's about awareness. And the final step is small rebellion,
Speaker 1: not dramatic, not loud, just the daily decision to do
Speaker 1: one thing honestly, even when no one rewards it, A
Speaker 1: quiet choice to speak truth where others hide it. These
Speaker 1: are tiny acts of defiance, invisible to the crowd, but
Speaker 1: powerful enough to keep your own inner structure intact. Pareto
Speaker 1: would say, you can't purify the system, but you can
Speaker 1: prevent it from owning your soul. You can swim in
Speaker 1: dirty water without becoming part of it. Because in the end,
Speaker 1: survival isn't just about staying alive. It's about staying uncorrupted
Speaker 1: where corruption feels inevitable. That's the hardest victory and the
Speaker 1: only one that matters. Pareto said, every society needs a valve,
Speaker 1: a small release point. It stops the system from exploding.
Speaker 1: That valve is corruption, not the loud, scandalous kind, but
Speaker 1: the quiet, everyday version that lets the machine breathe when
Speaker 1: pressure builds too high. The truth is you can't close
Speaker 1: it completely. If you seal it shut, the pressure rises
Speaker 1: until something breaks. If you leave it open too long,
Speaker 1: the system empties itself from within. The question was never
Speaker 1: can we remove it? The real question is who controls it.
Speaker 1: Look around, someone is always holding that valve. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: the clever few who know how to play the game.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's the powerful who decide when and how the
Speaker 1: rules apply. Sometimes it's all of us twisting the handle
Speaker 1: a little to make our own lives easier. Corruption is
Speaker 1: never just a story about them. It's a mirror that
Speaker 1: shows how far we'll go to protect comfort, reputation, or control.
Speaker 1: Every society believes it can build a pure system, but
Speaker 1: purity doesn't last because humans don't last. We change, We compromise,
Speaker 1: we improvise, and so does every structure we build. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean we give up. It means we learn to
Speaker 1: see the valve for what it is, a tool, not
Speaker 1: a destiny. We don't worship it, we don't pretend it's gone.
Speaker 1: We learn to keep it in check, to tighten it
Speaker 1: when it leaks too much, to release it when the
Speaker 1: system starts to choke. Pareto would remind us corruption will
Speaker 1: always exist, but whether it destroys or sustains depends on
Speaker 1: who's turning the handle. So ask yourself, in your company,
Speaker 1: your country, your own life, who's holding the valve, and
Speaker 1: if that person is you, will you use it to
Speaker 1: survive or to serve yourself. Because the system doesn't collapse
Speaker 1: when corruption appears. It collapses when no one dares to
Speaker 1: control it any more.