I just watched a video of President Trump commenting on his amazement that health care was such a complicated subject.

I am wondering how that came as a surprise to him, when the subject of health care has been so studied and debated by so many people for so many years who do grasp it’s complexity.

To me, this is another example of megalomania, when uninformed, politically inexperienced politicians gain public office, thinking that they have all the answers.

No one has all the answers, which is why having briefings and relying upon carefully picked cabinet members and advisers is so important when one is the leader of a world power.

Even our media has a part to play here; they are an additional mechanism of checks and balances to make sure that the people in power do not fall into the trap of “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In President Trump’s case, he seems to revel in dismissing or attacking those folks that could help him accomplish all that he plans to do, squandering some of his power in the process. Some might say that he is avoiding those advisers, who are part of our corrupt bureaucracy, to advance a new and fresh agenda, but I observe that he avoids any people or advisers who disagree with him and his poorly considered approaches to running the government, while blaming anyone within twitter range for his inability to comprehend the complexity of the job.

I am not ignorant of the corruption in our society; it is a result of greed and our human compulsion for power.

I often think to myself that most governments, regardless of how we categorize them as democracies, republics, socialisms, and even dictatorships, all suffer from the same problem; our basic human nature that can, at times, be benevolent and compassionate, but can also be very focused on gaining power over others at any expense.

Truly benevolent societies do not attempt to squelch their news media, repress and insult their judicial system, attack people for publicly speaking out against government authority and demean people of other races and religions for holding and expressing their views.

But this is what I am beginning to see in this administration, who so adamantly promised on the campaign trail a change in the policies that can lead to corruption. Unfortunately, the less admirable aspects of human nature will always hold sway over promises like this administration has been making and the only help we can hope for is a change in our basic human nature that will advance a more benevolent, egalitarian society.

Thus far in my life, I have not seen much evidence that we can accomplish this because the desire for power is so addictive; and this administration is no different than any other in that regard, despite all of President Trump’s claims to the contrary.

People who live their lives absorbed by the desire for power or money miss the opportunity to rise above the negative aspects of their human nature to find higher ground; instead they lie, deceive, and rely upon “alternative facts” to cover up their addiction to power and the actions they take because of that addiction.

Mitchell Fitzgibbon is Westfield resident.