Consider these two seemingly unrelated articles:
What do these two stories have in common? Both exhibit the greatest failing of politicians: the lust for power. The desire to control you. The opportunity to tell you what to do, backed up with the force of a gun.
In Kevin Duffy’s 2007 essay “What Drives the Lust for Power?” he points out how power lust is permitted (or at least tolerated) due to five key factors: ignorance, greed, fear, envy and fantasy.
By keeping people ignorant – of their constitutional heritage, of history, of the nature of the free market, of COVID treatments – they can be played like violins, swayed by any politician with a glib voice and slick promises.
By playing on peoples’ greed, politicians can play one segment of its citizenry against another, letting things reach a boiling point until the government comes to the rescue with a “solution” to the problem it created.
By making mountains out of molehills, governments instigate fear until the people demand a government solution (for even a minor or non-existent problem) in exchange for security. (And we all know where that leads.)
By nurturing envy and fertilizing the ground for class welfare, politicians cultivate the notion that one segment of society has the “right” to liberate another segment of society of its resources, which are then redistributed to those deemed by the politicians to be more worthy.
And of course this all plays into the fantasy that a Utopia is possible here on earth, a place where everyone will live in peace and harmony if only those awful greedy others would do as I say. “The only inconvenience,” notes Duffy, is “at the end of the day [this] Utopia requires brute force.”
We are watching every one of these points come to fruition in real time. Now we have Democratic New York Rep. Nydia Velazquez telling pro-Trump teen pundit CJ Pearson (and, by extension, all conservatives): “(Ocasio-Cortez) and I – and millions like us – are the future of this country. And you’re right to be afraid of us.”
Power. These people are mad with it.
Last April (on Earth Day), Biden indicated he wants to cut America’s beef consumption by 90%, limiting consumers to four pounds of beef per year. Naturally, this rhetoric is dressed up in fine linen of saving the planet, but it’s just another manifestation of how the elite gets off on telling everyone else what to do (while they themselves remain exempt from the policies they put in place for the little people).
There are kazillions of examples of people in power bolting with the bit in their mouths. Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Give them an inch and they take a mile for no other reason than they can.
“They’re not interested in the truth, they’re interested in power,” observed Candace Owns. “In order to maintain power, the masses cannot know the truth.”
This observation is echoed by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who says the radical left is promoting Critical Race Theory in an effort to assert more control over Americans’ lives, and amass more power in the process. “It’s all about power. That is – let’s be clear,” Noem said. “They want more control over your life. It gives them more opportunities to be successful and gain power in order to have more jurisdiction.”
Please understand, not everyone who is in a position of power has a LUST for it. We need leaders, and the very best leaders are those who lead, not control or force. As the far-left comes more into its own, they’re displaying a ravenous lust for power that is, literally, ruining this nation. They are not leading, they are forcing. They are controlling.
Interestingly, neuroscientists have found evidence to suggest feeling powerful dampens a part of our brain that helps with empathy. Even a small amount of power can have this effect on someone. The more power-lust someone has, the less empathy. Think of this next time you look at AOC’s or Kamala’s smiling face.
Let’s face it, normal people don’t want to be dictators. This is the conclusion of Bruce Deitrick Price in an excellent American Thinker essay: “Communism appeals to dead souls hungry for power. These are not normal, healthy people. When they finally seize power, everyone else becomes a victim, even as never-ending propaganda promises the perfect society. The last people you want in control of your life are control freaks eager to be your masters. They think it’s natural they should dictate your activities. … Communists want you to think their theories and plans are concerned with you and your happiness. That’s a lie. Their theories are concerned with helping them gain control of you.”
“There are people on this planet that are not satisfied to merely live their lives, take care of their families and make their mark peacefully,” agrees Brandon Smith. “They crave power over all else. They desperately want control over you, over me, over everything, and they will use any means at their disposal to get it. … They tell themselves and others that they are ‘philanthropists,’ that ‘they know what is best’ for the rest of us. They believe themselves superior and therefore it is their ‘destiny’ to dictate and micro-manage society for the ‘greater good’ of us all. But really, when we witness their methods it becomes clear that they have no noble aspirations. They have no empathy or honor. They don’t care about the average human being, or the environment, or the economy or society in general. They only care about themselves and their delusions of grandeur. These people are a cancer on the rest of civilization.”
Next time someone tries to exert power over you, ask yourself this: Is he leading, or is he forcing? The answer will tell you everything you need to know.
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