Don't Drink the Water

Imagine we are all together in a body of water. The water is our connection with each other. If someone contaminates the water, everyone suffers, even the one doing the contamination. With this scenario it makes sense that the person doing the contaminating will not do it for long as it has adverse impact on them as well. Now imagine that a boat is floating by. If someone gets into that boat he is no longer connected to us through the water. Now if someone contaminates the water, all but the one in the boat is affected. What if the one in the boat becomes the one to contaminate? He doesn't have to deal with the contamination while he is sitting safely in his ship. Aside from a personal connection with those still in the water, or solid moral character, why should he not contaminate the water? Perhaps he is neutral on the matter and decides not to. Perhaps someone else is in the boat, and this other person wants the water contaminated. The man from the water has two options, contaminate or don't. The second man begins to offer the man from the water all kinds of things that he likes. Eventually, the man from the water gives in and begins contaminating the water. Now all of the people he used to be connected to suffer, while he enjoys his new gifts with the second man in the boat.
Imagine a country founded on principles of self-governance. The people of this country saw the benefit for a controlling body to protect those with less power, while not losing the ideal of self-governance. The governing body would be made up of the people in the water. They wouldn't go sit in boats, they would stay in the water. The governors and the governed would all be one people. Should a person decide to contaminate, the governors would intervene for the good of the community. Should the governors decided to contaminate, the people would intervene for the good of the community. In any case, everyone was in the water together, contamination from one affected all. Eventually, the governors decided they could do a better job from the boat, so they climbed aboard. For a while they were able to remember the people they used to associate with in the water. They kept the water clean, even from the boat. But all along there was a man in the boat, riding along. He began to offer certain privileges and gifts for the governors to go against their promises to the people. Some gave way, then others, until they all were participating in the contamination. They didn't suffer from within the walls of their boat. The people in the water did.