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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   32198 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 7, 2025

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I'm being serious, what part of having to be constantly looking over your shoulder and being unable to trust even your closest relatives sound appealing to you.

Power is a curse, all those who actually tasted it will tell you. It eats at all of your life until nothing is left, and for what? In the end you only can make the decisions that allow you to maintain your station.

History is full of men who wanted nothing to do with it. And rightfully so.

Its only redeeming quality is that in the hands of your enemies, it is even more terrible than in yours.

But what has humanity ever hoped for if not for someone else to deal with anarchy? Entire societies built just so we don't have to do this dirty work ourselves. Whole religions spent on dreaming someone is doing it for us when we are too weak.

History is full of men who wanted nothing to do with it. And rightfully so.

Wars of succession are rarely fought to get the other guy to take on the, ah, "curse." There never seems to be a shortage of men ready and willing to take the top job.

It's only redeeming quality is that in the hands of your enemies, it is even more terrible than in yours.

These people have "enemies" because they wish to gain power and subjugate their rivals. If they didn't want to do those things, nobody would give a shit about them.

The vision of the reluctant ruler is a very romantic fantasy for the armchair philosopher, or for those with zero power in their personal life, but has very little, if anything, to do with reality.

If they didn't want to do those things, nobody would give a shit about them.

This just isn't true. History is full of people who refused to take power despite a solid claim and were killed by those who did. As I said, the only thing worse that holding power is your enemy holding it. Being benign works sometimes, but not all the time.

The vision of the reluctant ruler is a very romantic fantasy for the armchair philosopher, or for those with zero power in their personal life, but has very little, if anything, to do with reality.

See, that's not my experience at all, and I've actually had the burden or luxury of doing some leadership in both political and economic spheres in my own modest degree. While most people love to complain about what people do with power, they are quite averse to seizing it or attempting to hold it themselves, the sort of ruthless upstart people want to talk about here is common in politics but an aberration in the absolute.

Anyone who's actually held leadership will tell you this: what people love most is to criticize from the sidelines and to reap consequence free rewards.

Few enjoy or seek the actual work of making difficult decisions and making oneself the enemy of all.

Power is a curse, all those who actually tasted it will tell you. It eats at all of your life until nothing is left, and for what? In the end you only can make the decisions that allow you to maintain your station.

Does this describe Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, or Donald Trump? I don't think so. Vladimir Putin... LOL.

But what has humanity ever hoped for if not for someone else to deal with anarchy? Entire societies built just so we don't have to do this dirty work ourselves. Whole religions spent on dreaming someone is doing it for us when we are too weak.

A very Hobbesian view, but there are clearly many men (and a smaller but not insignificant number of women) who love power much.

Does this describe Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, or Donald Trump? I don't think so. Vladimir Putin... LOL.

Oh it certainly does. Obama's not shy about his frustration at being unable to change things because he had to spend his time greasing the wheel. Trump's entire first term was one compromise after another. Clinton is famous for doing a 180 on his economic policy after getting a stern talking to. And Putin's basically "look what you made me do": the foreign policy.

That's just how power is, read Dictator's Handbook for an explanation as to why: you can't rule alone, so you have to balance the needs and wants of your keys to power, and once you've managed that, you get to enjoy a little bit of vanity, as a treat.

Consequential rulers manage to be so because they hold solid well aligned coalitions of easy to satify people, and are competent enough to maintain them. People who rule by whim or principle never do so for long. Ask Liz Truss.

there are clearly many men (and a smaller but not insignificant number of women) who love power much

Undeniable, you certainly mentioned some. But these are not most men.

Obama is frustrated over not having EVEN MORE POWER (as is Trump), but neither consider power a curse. Nor Clinton, nor Trump.

I can think of two rulers throughout history who were actually reluctant -- and the second (Washington) is probably just American lore.

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