“Corruption is a self-replicating system. Either it is actively fought or it eventually gains the upper hand.”

Quite true — the fruit trees have to be cleared of worms constantly, or they are destroyed. But where is the reward for the fighters? If they’re fighting corruption, by definition they are passing on the easy rewards, the free fruit. . .not taking what it would be easier for them to have by just looking the other way while the bad men throw the other fellow in the river; by letting them use your unplowed field as a coke landing strip; or closing your eyes while they shake down local proprietors for protection money.

The problem we are coming up against is that there’s no reward for not being corrupt, and no hope either for the non corrupt. The simple feeling of righteousness that you are non-corrupt while 90 percent of your neighbors laugh or hate you is not enough. At least some of your neighbors need to help, or there needs to be something more to it (the promise of a hereafter, the approval of the local parson and the local social structure) or you’re likely to find that the corruption fighters are beaten before they begin.

Religion used to supply an additional reason for righteousness, and we have not managed in the west to replace it.

There is an alternative — the corrupt authoritarian State, where corruption is in power, and so strong there that nothing stands against it. But I do not see how you operate a Republic or preserving any kind of liberty is possible absent religion.