Ensign Flandry

I have always been a reader of Science Fiction. One of the series I read in my youth was by Poul Anderson, the Ensign Flandry series. Here is how Wikipedia describes it:

The illegitimate son of a minor nobleman, Flandry rises to considerable power within the decadent Empire by his own wits, and enjoys all the pleasures his position society gives him. Still he is painfully conscious of the impending fall of the Terran Empire and the subsequent "Long Night" of a galactic Dark Age. His career is dedicated to holding it off for as long as possible. In time, he passes the mantle to his daughter Diana, who is also illegitimate.

Flandry is willing to disregard conventional morality and use his foes' tactics against them. He can cheerfully deceive, seduce, and blackmail; grimly and regretfully, he mind-probes his son into a vegetable in A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, and in that same book, bombards Aycharaych's homeworld of Chereion into radioactive ruin to punish Aycharaych for his part in fostering trouble in the marches of the empire.

The idea is that since you can't beat them, the only option is to join them. The way to beat corruption is to become corrupt yourself. Am I the only one who wonders about the effectiveness of this? 

We watch our TV, eat our junk food, vote for one of the two prescribed candidates, and watch our porn on cable TV. "One more drink, bartender, please." We enjoy our decadence to the full, even as we rail against our situation. We, as a group, have caused our situation. As the cartoon character Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." 

The only way to defeat evil is not to become evil yourself. It is much easier to drift downstream with the crowd. The roar of the approaching waterfall is just the wind. No need to worry. You ask your seat mate in the boat, "How about them Cowboys?" The fact that you must talk louder and louder to drown out the roar as the boat gets nearer to the falls is not a fit subject for civilized people. 

Get out of the boat. 

Rev 18 (The Message) tells us:

Get out, my people, as fast as you can, 

      so you don't get mixed up in her sins, 
      so you don't get caught in her doom.

Are you ready? Can you hear the roar of the waterfall as our community boat nears its doom?