The Virtue Or Morality Of The Hierarchies

"Pollice Verso" — Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872 | The power of hierarchy over life

"He railed, in Pompey's name, at the Immortal Gods for always allowing vice to triumph over virtue. How they laughed."
— Robert Graves, I, Claudius

Hierarchies surround us everywhere: the corporation, the family, the State, the military, nature itself. But are they moral, or simply necessary? Can virtue truly exist within the exercise of power, or does all power inevitably corrupt the very virtue it claims to defend?

In this essay from the book "Resisting the Sisyphus Average", Miguel Troncoso Castro draws on his own experience in the world of engineering and construction — where two symbiotic cultures coexist, that of the field and that of the central office — to explore one of humanity's oldest tensions: the relationship between power, virtue, and morality in hierarchical structures.

From classical Rome to the contemporary world, the author traces the history of power and its masks, asking whether true virtue can flourish within a hierarchy, or whether every hierarchy carries within itself the seeds of its own moral corruption.

With his characteristic sharpness, Troncoso connects political philosophy with everyday experience, revealing that the drama of power does not play out only in Roman forums or modern parliaments, but in every business meeting, every family, every decision we make as a society.

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From the book: Resisting the Sisyphus Average | Miguel Troncoso Castro | First English Edition, March 2022.

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