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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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To: Rummyfan

Hillary Clinton


21 posted on 08/25/2024 6:04:51 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Knaves, fools, jesters


22 posted on 08/25/2024 6:09:42 AM PDT by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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To: ClearCase_guy

Democrats want to control everything but the border


23 posted on 08/25/2024 6:19:19 AM PDT by Keyhopper (Indians had bad immigration laws)
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To: Track9

😉


24 posted on 08/25/2024 6:26:40 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (I'm voting for the convicted felon with the pierced ear. )
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To: Rummyfan
Louis had an astonishing 498 workers preparing each of his meals.

Sounds like featherbedding.

25 posted on 08/25/2024 6:36:17 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (Thinking is difficult. And painful. That’s why many people just get emotional instead.)
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To: Rummyfan

When you are young (and the world hasn’t yet beat the snot out of you) you dream of a world where people are always nice to each other.

Mom is nice to you.

Dad calls you “princess”.

The teachers rave about how smart you are because you kiss their behinds.

Then, you begin to run into a series of self serving jackasses.

Your boss doesn’t care that you’re a prince.

You have to do menial work.

Your whole worldview is shattered.

How do you react?

You turn 180 degrees and take your revenge on anyone who dares disagree with you.

You take your revenge on anyone who looks like someone who blew up your snow globe world.


26 posted on 08/25/2024 6:46:48 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: Rummyfan

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


27 posted on 08/25/2024 6:47:58 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Rummyfan
I’ll let the reader decide how many modern politicians Pascal’s ideas apply to. With Pascal’s insight, we understand why conflict is a feature of politics and not a bug.

Pascal spares no one’s feelings. Some “seek external diversion and occupation, and this is the result of their constant sense of wretchedness.” For them, “rest proves intolerable because of the boredom it produces. [They] must get away from it and crave excitement.”

Let that sink in. 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.

I'll wager that religion forums go way back..
28 posted on 08/25/2024 6:55:15 AM PDT by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: Track9

I revel in my solitude. When my frau goes off to a scrapbooking retreat, the TV is rarely on, my ears are out, and I am reading or building models in the bunker.


29 posted on 08/25/2024 7:01:22 AM PDT by bravo whiskey (Annie Savoy : The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self awareness. )
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To: Rummyfan

Why are they picking on people without meaningful lives?


30 posted on 08/25/2024 7:13:26 AM PDT by aspasia
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To: metmom
I have come to the conclusion that people who are obsessed with controlling others do so because they have no self-control.

A common theme in the gun-control crowd is "you shouldn't have a gun because if I had one, I'd do something bad with it."

31 posted on 08/25/2024 7:18:34 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: FatherofFive

Everyman’s a murderer.


32 posted on 08/25/2024 7:42:19 AM PDT by aspasia
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To: marktwain

Agree. It’s a great article. I often struggle to understand why I seem so much more interested in global and national politics than I am in the intrigue of my own family.


33 posted on 08/25/2024 8:09:44 AM PDT by SomeCallMeTim (C )
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To: Jonty30

Especially if you’ve been condition by the government..in your corrupt miseducated pea sized brain..that ONLY government can save you.


34 posted on 08/25/2024 8:13:35 AM PDT by Leep (Re-elect deep state. 2024!)
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To: Rummyfan

>>>Pascal’s authoritarian king or many of today’s modern politicians have no meaning in their lives, but find a corrupted false sense of meaning by exercising power over others, starting wars, issuing edicts, punishing enemies, etc.<<<

This says it all.


35 posted on 08/25/2024 8:41:39 AM PDT by Old Grumpy
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To: Rummyfan

“ For him, having power was an attribute of a meaningful life.”

POWERFUL.
The difference between the left and the right.

1) The right wants to be left alone, minimal government.
2) The left wants everyone controlled and to tell you what to do. You have to answer to them for your thoughts and actions.

We really need to get better at communicating this to voters.


36 posted on 08/25/2024 8:47:09 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Have you seen Joe Biden's picture on a milk carton?)
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To: HereInTheHeartland

This king had his castle and 498 cooks. Why be happy when you can raid the next kingdom and conquer? We can go on a cheap Carnival cruise and eat gourmet for a whole week whenever we want to.

Then there’s the childless cat ladies. Many have money and no reason to be miserable. They also have plenty of time to be miserable enough to think it’s my fault for having more money or not hitting on them. Gilda Radner: It’s always something.


37 posted on 08/25/2024 9:31:35 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: dfwgator

GMTA, see post #8


38 posted on 08/25/2024 10:23:07 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: Rummyfan

Reminds me of one of my fav Dilbert cartoons.
Dilbert is talking to Dogbert. In the first frame Dilbert say, “I figured out what’s wrong with life.” In the second frame he says, “It’s other people.”
😅


39 posted on 08/25/2024 1:14:51 PM PDT by Lake Living
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