FINAL diagnostic essay draft

“Honesty, Wealth, and a Better America: My Superpower”
Morgan Wood
English 111-62

“Honesty is the best policy” This is true for the most part. I will always remember my parents from an early age instilling the essentials of what was to become my moral code. Constantly they would remind me “Morgan if there is only one thing we can teach you remember this, regardless of who you are or what you do, do not lie cheat or steel! So long as you do not do these three things you will be a good man” it sounded the as it does now just a little too simple. Unfortunately it was not for some time, long after I had internalized these moors and refined them for myself as simply “be truthful in all things”, that I realized by adopting this creed I had set myself at a perilous disadvantage (at least with those who that had not had as socially responsible parents as myself). This disadvantage would not occur to me until I could distinguish for myself a lie along with the liar. I have over the years with practice become more adapted at compensating for what I will call my own honest shortcomings. I became aware that not everyone is honest with either themselves or the world around them. I find now that it is almost impossible to truly determine who if anyone is ever completely truthful. I suppose then that the only person one could trust is themselves but even then the question of interpersonal integrity comes into question. When faced with such overwhelming uncertainty the only feasible solution would be to grant myself a magnificent superpower. The only reasonable answer would involve leveling this dishonest playing field. I would have to have the ability to know whether or not someone was lying and then be able to share or bestow this as privileged information with someone else. I guess ultimately what I would be asking for is the ability to grant and withdraw the ability to read minds.
With my new ability to grant psionic mind reading abilities I would of course grant myself the privilege of using this new power for my own personnel gain. I would sell or lease the ability to the many institutions of government who could use it to civic purposes. Courts and lawyers would be charged for the use with witnesses and juries so that no innocent person may ever be proven otherwise. I would bestow the power to peacekeepers and diplomats, though only after much mental and ideological scrutiny by myself and maybe a panel of trusty henchmen. I would replace the lie detector as the definitive measure of somebody’s innocence altogether. Never would the public be mislead by slippery tongued beurocrats. I would sell my services for the use as a closed captioned aide to be made mandatory accompaniment to political candidates adds and speeches thereby disallowing politicians the long time luxury of gilded speech. Consumers the world over may never again be deceived by a shifty salesperson or misleading commercial. My psionic powers would primarily be used for my personnel financial gain. I would not however be opposed to a little charity work here and there so long as I could write it off as a tax credit. Not entirely unsympathetic I would provide my unique ability a gratis to those less fortunate individuals who could use it in some fashion to better their circumstance.
With great power comes great responsibility. Thankfully by the time I have to concern myself with this personnel responsibility I will be wealthy enough to hire somebody else to concern themselves with my concerns. I can think no better way of fantasizing about acquiring super powers than imagining making the world a better if not more honest a place while single handedly securing the financial independence of myself and infinite amount of children and grand children. Not only would it change my life but also the lives of those who have ever received the short end of the stick because the world did not play by the same set of rules. It is a sad truth but some do lie, some do cheat, and some do steal but if I had it my way I would have a superpower that ensured I got stinking wealthy making sure that society in all things remained true.