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Today's subject is..absolute power

It seems that there is-- and perhaps has always been--an eternal quest among the powerful for more power then they already have. It's not enough that in the past 50 years we have made astounding gains in terms of technology in virtually every area, someone always wants a more superfluous influence then they already have. Now I do not believe that striving for success is wrong, or that one should simply forget the world once they have become successful. It's the people who are already obscenely wealthy and powerful yet never seem to be satisfied that bug me.

I have often ruminated about why would anyone behave in such a way. One possible explanation is that gaining power is just wired into some folks DNA in a somewhat Darwinian fashion. Gain more power, increase chances of success for you and your descendants. Or maybe it's not about you at all, maybe it's solely about your descendants. Make a mad dash for as much power as possible during your short life--we must remember for most of human history the average length of life was very low--, spending every waking second plotting how to gain more until the day of your death. It would certainly be no stranger an approach to life then some of the other organisms on this planet. Some creatures seem to spend their entire lives either eating or desperately trying to mate, then once they mate they die. It makes sense in some fashion when you consider how perilous life is for many of them and how low the survival rate often is for newborn wild animal.

So perhaps some people are behaving just like animals, ruthlessly pursuing as much influence as possible because of some primal instinct designed to maximize their success. However, what does all of this mean for the rest of us? What happens when so much of the power becomes concentrated in the hands of the few, does capitalism fall to pieces? Does democracy cease to be by the people for the people and instead meta-morphs into by rich for the rich? One also has to wonder what will our world look like once we finally figure out how to slow down the aging process even further, and people start routinely living for hundreds of years--which if I am not mistaken is the current optimistic estimate. Will certain individuals who don't have an "off switch" for their desire for more suddenly find themselves living virtually forever, able to be kept alive by technology? Maybe some of them will even become heads of state, able to hold their office for many generations, Fidel Castro style.

Perhaps our societies can only really function if there is a system of checks and balances..for every force pushing one way, there most be another force pushing in the opposite direction. The alternative--unchecked power--seems to me rather dangerous.

Vocab: Ruminated: to meditate on; ponder.
Superflous: being more than is sufficient or required; excessive.