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People Without Meaningful Lives Seek Power Over Others
Mindset Shifts ^ | 24 Aug 2024 | Barry Brownstein

Posted on 08/25/2024 5:24:07 AM PDT by Rummyfan

One of my more memorable exchanges with a student came in a principles of economics class. Part of the assignment for that week was chapters from Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist. Ridley compared the living standards of an average worker today with those of The Sun King, Louis XIV, in 1700. Some of my more ahistorical students were incredulous at Ridley’s description of the grinding poverty of the average person just a few centuries ago.

The King had an opulent lifestyle compared to others. Louis had an astonishing 498 workers preparing each of his meals. Yet his standard of living was still a fraction of what we experience today.

Ridley outlined the miracles of specialization and exchange in our time — an everyday cornucopia at the supermarket, modern communications and transportation, clothing to suit every taste. If we remove our blinders and see how many individuals provide services to us, Ridley concludes we have “far more than 498 servants at [our] immediate beck and call.”

Then, the memorable exchange occurred. One student shared that he would prefer to live in 1700, if he had more money than others and power over them. My first reaction was amusement; I thought the student was practicing his deadpan humor skills. He wasn’t. For him, having power was an attribute of a meaningful life.

If only my student’s mindset were an aberration.

(Excerpt) Read more at mindsetshifts.substack.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: ancienregime; barrybrownstein; blaisepascal; economics; france; louisxiv; mattridley; mindsetshifts; pages; power; thepensees; therationaloptimist; thesunking
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During the reign of Louis XIV, French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal diagnosed why some lust for power. In his Pensées, Pascal wrote, “I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” Pascal explained that, out of the inability to sit alone, arises the human tendency to seek power as a diversion.

A thought piece for Sunday morning.

1 posted on 08/25/2024 5:24:07 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

Oh the tranquility of solitude.


2 posted on 08/25/2024 5:31:56 AM PDT by Track9 (If you want to know about human nature, read a power tool user manual. )
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To: Track9

You mean childless cat ladies?


3 posted on 08/25/2024 5:34:56 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: Rummyfan

I can see this. When you see yourself as incapable, you want society to do it for you.


4 posted on 08/25/2024 5:35:13 AM PDT by Jonty30 (Genghis Khan did not have the most descendants. His father had more. )
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To: Track9
Oh the tranquility of solitude.

If only other people would leave me the hell alone!

5 posted on 08/25/2024 5:35:27 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (Trump/Vance 2024 or GFY)
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To: Rummyfan

Describe’s today’s Left. (And some on the Right as well)


6 posted on 08/25/2024 5:41:21 AM PDT by Tench_Coxe (The woke were surprised by the reaction to the Bud Light fiasco. May there be many more surprises)
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To: Rummyfan
Excellent essay. It puts into well written words thoughts I have been grappling with.

The idea of a lust for power as a means of diversion is a powerful one.

Similarly, hedonism as a means of not considering your life, as a diversion from thinking...

Good article.

Christians say Christ sets us free from being a slave to sin. Very similar notion.

7 posted on 08/25/2024 5:41:51 AM PDT by marktwain (The Republic is at risk. Resistance to the Democratic Party is Resistance to Tyranny. )
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To: Rummyfan

“And he can’t even run his own life
I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine, sunshine”


8 posted on 08/25/2024 5:42:43 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: DIRTYSECRET

I never knew that type to have peace of mind. More manic weirdness. Talking to themselves etc.


9 posted on 08/25/2024 5:43:26 AM PDT by Track9 (If you want to know about human nature, read a power tool user manual. )
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Quit pickin’ on me. 😉 😻


10 posted on 08/25/2024 5:44:31 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (I'm voting for the convicted felon with the pierced ear. )
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Interesting article. Author leaves it to us to apply it to today’s circumstances. What did they call the clowns that entertained kings. Jokers?


11 posted on 08/25/2024 5:46:13 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: Sirius Lee

“..If only other people would leave me the hell alone!...”

^THIS!!!^


12 posted on 08/25/2024 5:46:13 AM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created..." )
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To: MayflowerMadam

Love your tag line. Great!


13 posted on 08/25/2024 5:47:16 AM PDT by Track9 (If you want to know about human nature, read a power tool user manual. )
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To: lgjhn23

Not pickin’. I’m a dog man. Labrador-closest to humans in temperament.


14 posted on 08/25/2024 5:47:29 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: kosciusko51

I think it is a great tragedy that the 1960s youth movement turned into a Marxist, hedonistic, pro-government, anti-Christian, tribalist nightmare.

Up until about 1968, a lot of the beatnik/hippie/yippie culture was focused on anti-government, self-improvement, personal tranquility and simple social solutions to local problems. But that movement got blown out of the water and many activist Baby Boomers decided to push for Maoist solutions to everything. It became all about running other peoples’ lives, largely as a result of angry individuals who couldn’t run their own.


15 posted on 08/25/2024 5:49:47 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (I think women should get out of women's sports before they get hurt.)
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To: Rummyfan
"A person able to exercise coercive power can use their morally undeveloped “wretched” mind to create endless misery for others merely because exercising power distracts them from their failures as human beings. "

This sums it up nicely.

16 posted on 08/25/2024 5:52:51 AM PDT by Indy Pendance (Jesus can't here soon enough!)
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To: ClearCase_guy

There’s more. In big companies the bosses would dare us to quit every morning we showed up for work. They did it through the newest policy or directive. Some would take them up on it and the cost of new-hires was managable. Those sticking with it were the stronger, more patient ones. First level supervisors were the real cowards as they had more pressure to buy into and knew where their bread was buttered. Throw in everyone having bills to pay, especially a mortgage. It doesn’t help that the more driven ones end up with the more attractive spouses and that consumers want too much of what they don’t need.

Take away the hostility and people get lazy. Another human condition.


17 posted on 08/25/2024 5:57:15 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: ClearCase_guy

That’s about the time the “red diaper doper babies” took over the movement.


18 posted on 08/25/2024 5:58:00 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: Rummyfan

Cat ladies, HR departments, bureaucRats


19 posted on 08/25/2024 5:58:45 AM PDT by FatherofFive (we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor)
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To: Rummyfan

I have come to the conclusion that people who are obsessed with controlling others do so because they have no self-control.

Since they can’t control themselves and live they life they want, they try to force others to live in such a way as to provide the life they want.


20 posted on 08/25/2024 6:02:57 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”)
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