7.30 am rant about power

[dead_but_twitching]

today i woke up at 7.30 and went to driving school only to find out it didn't start until 10,45.

so here i am high on coffe and ciggaretes with an epiphany on my mind that i just haave to share.

isn't it ideologies that makes people kill for power, and not the power itself?

i mean if you're just a dictator without any real ideology,, you'll just kill everyone that threatens your power. but if you're a fundamentalist of some ideology, then you'll have to kill everyone that is representing a different one, right?= the execution toll rises.

so why not just have power for powers sake?

[Bikerpunk]

Power, fundamentally, is about getting laid.

[ForrestBlack]

today i woke up at 7.30 and went to driving school only to find out it didn't start until 10,45.

so here i am high on coffe and ciggaretes with an epiphany on my mind that i just haave to share.

isn't it ideologies that makes people kill for power, and not the power itself?

i mean if you're just a dictator without any real ideology,, you'll just kill everyone that threatens your power. but if you're a fundamentalist of some ideology, then you'll have to kill everyone that is representing a different one, right?= the execution toll rises.

so why not just have power for powers sake?

Power is essentially the ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something. This sometimes manifests it's self through brute strength or leverage, but not always. Ideology is defined as a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture. So, power simply for the sake of power has no goal, it's potential but not kinetic. People clash over ideology and if they have the power they stand a chance of gaining or at least keeping their ground, as it were. However, even a fundamentalist could theoretically convert people to their way of seeing things simply by making a compelling case supporting their systematic body of concepts. People who fail at making that compelling case and/or fail to appeal to the hearts or minds of others are sometimes tempted to resort to killing, usually out of anger and/or frustration at their own failure.

[dead_but_twitching]

essentially what i meant was: i'm in charge now, and everybody can live as they please and if anyone wants to mess with me, i'll fucking kill you!

thats why the persians, mongols and the romans were so succesfull

they only wanted wealth and more land and didn't impose any of their own moral values on their conquered territory.

[evilstonermonkey]

if you kill the peasants, who will farm your lands?

[Morning Glory]

well, in a way yes, because the goal is to HAVE power, not really to excersize it. Not to say that those who have power don't use it, because they obviously do. that's part of being in power and keeping your power. But the point is that for those who crave power, their satisfaction lies in being powerful. There have been peaceful power structures, they just don't last because other power-seakers are violent assholes and they are a threat, which is why the powerful are more often than not despotic. And for the most power hungry, it just becomes easiest to eliminate all threats real or otherwise.

Now for someone that really believes in thier idealogy, then they wouldn't crave personal power. It would be more important for them to see thier idealogy thrive, even if it came at thier own personal expense.

The thing is that people have emotions, and you can still be a violent asshole and feel bad about it. It's very rare that you have people that have no emotional connection to thier actions, these people are insane. People who crave power are usually not insane, although they are probably really lacking in self-worth. People that use violence and power-domination for the sake of thier ideals almost never turly believe in thier idealogy, they just use it first of all as a means to justify thier actions as being right, and also in the hopes that they can convert other people to thier idealogy and that those people will believe that they are right as well and grant them that power and help them to fight off others that threaten them.

it's hard to kill off everyone that doesn't agree with you, it's easier to get people to rule themselves.

[Mr Karl]

thats why the persians, mongols and the romans were so succesfull

.

so where are they now.....

[theUnclean]

essentially what i meant was: i'm in charge now, and everybody can live as they please and if anyone wants to mess with me, i'll fucking kill you!

thats why the persians, mongols and the romans were so succesfull

they only wanted wealth and more land and didn't impose any of their own moral values on their conquered territory.

uhm, no. All of the above killed conquered and imposed.
Though I totally understand the point, I really do not agree. Getting the power and keeping it requires at least some form of imposition, some slaughter (either people or their ideals). Most people have amnesia when it comes to the wrongs committed in the name of power.
Christianity started as a small group of highly persecuted people with a radical idea. They were hunted down, murdered and faced some pretty horrible things. Move ahead a few centuries and can you say the Witch hunt!

[Mr Karl]

power is about control, and who the hell wants to control anyone besides themselves? It really doesn't get you anything but a big pile of shit

[dead_but_twitching]

so where are they now.....

well i said that they were succesfull not invincible juggernauts...

sacrifices are of course a necessary part in any succesful dictatorship.. but wouldn't it lower the death toll if you'd narrow it down from "all who doesn't believe in god" to "all who tries to take the power away from me" ?..

well hell... thanks for shareing

[evilstonermonkey]

history is written by the conquerors, as the say, so keep in mind that for every slaughter committed by the ancient peepz theres probably a few on the hush-hush that would have just been bad PR.