"power corrupts"

i work in a field bred by optimists.
the only reason to do the work i do is for love of the work and love of the people i work with.
there is no money. there is no prestige.
one would think that it would be a field littered with idealists.
but what i have found is a field littered with the burned out decaying bodies of the idealists beaten down before me, and the pillars of decadent power beating them down.
if there is no money, and there is no prestige, how. . .why would power mongers even enter our realms?
i have given this endless thought, especially lately.
the only answer i have come up with is...'power corrupts.'
were these pillars of corruption once idealists walking in the same combat boots i wear now? that trudged these fields i trudge, with the same idealistic love of humanity that i have? and then climbed a ladder, a ladder that was set before them in the guise of helpfulness.
"climb this ladder and you can help so many more, you can reach so many more lives"
but the heights dizzied them, and they forgot why they climbed, why they walked the field in the first place. they could only see their relative height, relative to me.
and a ladder becomes a pillar, an immovable pillar.
and even with this i still believe in the best of mankind, i believe in man's inherent goodness.
and then i ask...
what will i do when that ladder is set before me?