Power
Do you want power? Do you want to control other people? What if you had the opportunity to force people to do what you wanted? Would you take it? Do you think you know better than others about how to spend their money? If so, what if you could take other people’s money? What would you do with it? If you think these things are wrong, why are they right when governments do them? Governments, because they can do these things, because they’ve been given these powers, they do. This is the problem of power.
Who is it that wants power most? Psychologists estimate that roughly 1% of the human population is psychopathic. In other words, for every hundred people you know, one of them has no empathy, no concern for other people, no sense of guilt, no compunction about lying, will use others to gain money and power and will use violence against enemies. Psychopaths could be the people who continually lash out. These people are sometimes easy to identify and should be locked up or killed. But psychopaths might also be very smart, crafty people. A reasonable fear related to anarchy is that, in a free society, these people will form violent or at least smooth-talking groups that attempt to impose their will on others. However, if the people believe that no one should impose their will on others, they will unify to resist and perhaps lock up or kill these psychopaths. But governmental societies have far more to fear. At present, there are legal ways to gain power, which means that any of these smart psychopaths who want power can attain it, and the people have to do whatever they want. It might seem unlikely that could happen in our society—after all, we live in a democracy, where elections are supposed to weed out the people who are not fit to lead. But elections do not do that. They reward charismatic people, people who look good on television, people who flatter their subjects, people who make endless promises, and people who know how to use others to get what they want.
What professions do you think psychopaths, people who want power over others, are likely to go into? Presumably, they will enter politics, the military and the police. If these institutions had some kind of psycho-detectors, they might be more trustworthy. They do not. Jim Kouri, vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, explains that the characteristics of psychopaths, again, charm, lying, no empathy or guilt and so on, are shared by politicians.
[T]hese same traits exist in men and women who are drawn to high-profile and powerful positions in society including political officeholders…. [S]ome of the character traits exhibited by serial killers or criminals may be observed in many within the political arena. While not exhibiting physical violence, many political leaders display varying degrees of anger, feigned outrage and other behaviors. They also lack what most consider a ‘shame’ mechanism. Quite simply, most serial killers and many professional politicians must mimic what they believe, are appropriate responses to situations they face such as sadness, empathy, sympathy, and other human responses to outside stimuli.
(See also here.)
There are varying degrees of psychopathy; and of course not everyone who wants power is a psychopath. He might just be some well-meaning person who doesn’t realise that the initiation of force is an immoral and counterproductive way to make the world a better place. But power tends to corrupt, as not only Lord Acton’s maxim but research indicates. To be successful politicians, people need to adopt the smooth talk, the lying, the denial of responsibility, the control of their consciences necessary for success in politics. And these things get worse the longer they remain in politics and defend their actions. People in power become more impulsive, more convinced of their greatness and less sympathetic. They also lose certain inhibitions. Power leads to more risk taking. When an individual without political power takes risks and fails, they affect him and his family. When a corporate executive takes risks and fails, wealth and jobs are destroyed. When the politically powerful take risks and fail, we get world war and economic crisis.
Saint Bonaventura, a 13th century theologian, once said “the higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of its behind.” In other words, the more power a man amasses, the further he is from social constraints. People want power because it creates, or seems to create, freedom of action, and control of others. But if often brings vanity, worry about how long power will be enjoyed, fantasy about how benign its holder is, and the desire to use that power to gain more. As Frans de Waal says in his excellent book Good Natured: the Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals, “Few people have the discipline to handle this drug.” And winning an election or otherwise forming the government is a great way to get high.
I find it ironic that all democrats I have ever met complain about their governments sometimes or all the time but most believe that we just need to reform it. We just need a couple more elections. We just need more people voting, or taking an interest in politics. We need more accountability and the right people in power. They have dreams of incorruptible supermen following strict rules, doing exactly what the people want. Sorry friends, that system and those people do not exist. Almost everyone who gains power could be corrupted by it, and no one you elect will do everything you want. And whatever your fantasy of strong, accountable government is, the term is an oxymoron. The stronger government gets, the less accountable it is.
Politicians are mostly just concerned with power. In the you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours world of politics, when powerful groups that a politician can reward by doling out public money to or protecting with laws come along with their hands out, they usually get what they want. You, as a voter, by the way, are not powerful. If you are a not member of a well-connected pressure group, you have no voice. In the words of Gordon Gekko, “if you’re not inside, you’re outside.” Insiders have hold of the reins of state, which means they can force you to follow their directives, dictated by their whims, and outsiders have to beg to have them changed.
No one should be given power over others—not me, not you and especially not someone who wants it.
