In my last post I talked about the idea that every human being on this earth desires one thing, and that one thing is power; the ability to influence people and events. I gave my reasons for thinking this and argued that no matter what your actions, they are motivated most of the time by this single overwhelming desire, whether concisely or sub concisely. But what is it that we strive to control? By definition to have power is to be able to control events and people, but that doesn’t narrow it down enough. There are five powers that we as humans wish to control above all else, four of which will be discussed in this post. These powers are Finite; they can neither be created nor destroyed as I said in my previous post. The fifth power is special, and is not Finite, and so it will receive its own post later on.
Death. Death is the single most disturbing and mysterious phenomenon that we as humans perceive. Philosophers, religions, and scientists have tried time and time again to uncover the mysteries of death, but none of the answers they find are of any comfort to the majority of people. Human beings as a whole still fear death, despite beliefs in an afterlife that many of the world’s greatest religions teach. We simply do not know, and are unable to know, what death has in store for us. If not for death we could accomplish so much more, and yet we are burdened by the knowledge that some day we will leave this earth forever, never to return. We seek to control it with science and religion; using science to expand our lives beyond what nature would normally allow and by making ourselves look young, and religion to explain the unexplainable, to help know what happens when we die for to have knowledge of something is to hold power over it.
We seek power over nature; we seek power over one another. Every scientific discovery, every invention, were discovered or invented to in some way take power away from nature or our fellow man. Our constant drive to harness and control the power of nature has led to some of mankind’s greatest achievements and discoveries. The light bulb, the airplane, space flight, are all examples of mans persistence not to be bound by the laws of nature; to break free of the bonds of natural law. On the other hand, the strive to control one another is the root cause of conflict and struggle in this world. Because gaining power over one another is, far and away, the easiest kind of power one may obtain, it is the one kind that is most often sought out the most.
The fourth power, and the ultimate power that all men struggle to obtain, is the power of God or the concept of God. Even if one does not believe that God exists, even if one is a stanch atheist, they still seek the power to not necessarily control God, but to BE God. To be God, in a strictly human none religious sense, is to hold absolute power and knowledge over everything and everyone. God IS power; God is knowledge. This is one power that can never be reached. It is necessary to obtain complete and absolute rule over all three of the previously mentioned powers before can begin to think of themselves as a God, and it is a complete impossibility to do so.
We make strives every day to control nature, but nature still controls our daily lives; we manage to bend others to our will but they always brake away in the end; we prolong our lives and hide death from our bodies, but all men die; God is an unreachable goal that leads all seekers to failure. It is these four powers that hold sway over every aspect of our lives; their power over us and our attempts to wrestle that power away.
Death. Death is the single most disturbing and mysterious phenomenon that we as humans perceive. Philosophers, religions, and scientists have tried time and time again to uncover the mysteries of death, but none of the answers they find are of any comfort to the majority of people. Human beings as a whole still fear death, despite beliefs in an afterlife that many of the world’s greatest religions teach. We simply do not know, and are unable to know, what death has in store for us. If not for death we could accomplish so much more, and yet we are burdened by the knowledge that some day we will leave this earth forever, never to return. We seek to control it with science and religion; using science to expand our lives beyond what nature would normally allow and by making ourselves look young, and religion to explain the unexplainable, to help know what happens when we die for to have knowledge of something is to hold power over it.
We seek power over nature; we seek power over one another. Every scientific discovery, every invention, were discovered or invented to in some way take power away from nature or our fellow man. Our constant drive to harness and control the power of nature has led to some of mankind’s greatest achievements and discoveries. The light bulb, the airplane, space flight, are all examples of mans persistence not to be bound by the laws of nature; to break free of the bonds of natural law. On the other hand, the strive to control one another is the root cause of conflict and struggle in this world. Because gaining power over one another is, far and away, the easiest kind of power one may obtain, it is the one kind that is most often sought out the most.
The fourth power, and the ultimate power that all men struggle to obtain, is the power of God or the concept of God. Even if one does not believe that God exists, even if one is a stanch atheist, they still seek the power to not necessarily control God, but to BE God. To be God, in a strictly human none religious sense, is to hold absolute power and knowledge over everything and everyone. God IS power; God is knowledge. This is one power that can never be reached. It is necessary to obtain complete and absolute rule over all three of the previously mentioned powers before can begin to think of themselves as a God, and it is a complete impossibility to do so.
We make strives every day to control nature, but nature still controls our daily lives; we manage to bend others to our will but they always brake away in the end; we prolong our lives and hide death from our bodies, but all men die; God is an unreachable goal that leads all seekers to failure. It is these four powers that hold sway over every aspect of our lives; their power over us and our attempts to wrestle that power away.
9 comments:
As a philosophical experiment, try rephrasing these thoughts in terms of "security" ... why do we seek power over nature? because we want security in knowing that nature cannot harm us; why do we seek power over others? because we want security in knowing that others cannot harm us; why do we seek to know the mind of God? because we want security in knowing that God and the afterlife exist.
Mr. Chicken.
Hmm, very interesting, but your forgetting about the fifth power that I will discuss tomorrow if I get the chance. I see your point though, and will have to put some thought into it. The whole point of this blog, after all, is to try out these ideas, I myself am not totally sold on the idea of "power for the sake of power" but I want to get the idea out into the open to see if it stacks up with other ideas. After all, if I kept it to myself I’m not doing anyone, including myself, any good.
To be honest, I'm probably making the typical philosopher's mistake here. I don't like what "power for the sake of power" says about the human race, and so I look for alternative ways of explaining things. :-) Certainly, I cannot deny that particular individuals throughout history have been consumed with "power for the sake of power" - but I consider such individuals to be anomalies bordering on the pathological. And as they have their counterparts (pathologically submissive individuals), I would argue that on the whole the human race is not consumed with simple "power for the sake of power" ... rather, I think for the average human that power is more of a means toward an end - for example, "power for the sake of security". Unfortunately, this basic human instinct can be taken advantage of, as when a power-hungry leader uses fear to try and stir a population into an unwarranted and self-destructive power-grabbing frenzy (not mentioning any political or fundamentalist names here ;-)
Mr. Chicken.
But power for powers sake really isn't a bad thing at all. The only time when seeking power is good is when you do it at the expense of another, that is it. I know it sounds bad, it did to me when I first thought of the idea, but in reality it is this drive for power that has allowed for our greatests achievments. Without our drive for power we wouldn't have the thriving society we have today. Of course we probibly would not have the chaos and wars we see everyday, but both are the natural side effects of this power struggle.
I almost came back with "But if the drive for power benefits society, then isn't it power for society's sake?" But then I realized that that may not be how the power seeker sees things. The fact that power seekers rise to the top and make society work can be more of an Adam-Smith-invisible-hand thing than than anything consciously decided upon. But then again, serious students of society may indeed see this and then seek power based on the assumption that they can benefit society. Of course, to empirically determine which (or both!) is the case, I'd have to see inside politicians' heads (and I don't think my psyche could handle that! ;-)
You can benefit society in other ways then just becoming powerful, but I’d agree that becoming a rich and powerful man/woman gives you the best shot at benefiting society. Some people might say "hey, I’ll just become powerful so that I can benefit people" and that would be great, but the want to be rich and powerful was probably there already, he just gave himself a concrete motivation. Of course none of this can be proven, but it certainly helps me explain the world. I started out like Buddha actually, desires are what causes war and prosperity, but desire for what? When I thought about it more, power became the logical conclusion. As for politicians, yucky, I never want to see what their thinking.
"The only time when seeking power is good is when you do it at the expense of another,"
oops, bad, i mean to say BAD. Its good to seek power, bad when you do it at the expense of others.
>>he just gave himself a concrete motivation.
... and/or a concrete excuse.
>>oops, bad, i mean to say BAD.
I knew what you meant ;-)
Mr. Chicken.
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