Power and Futility

Something that bewilders me is, what seems like, the human desire to accumulate massive amounts of power.

I understand that the word "power" can mean many things (it didn't take me two books of analytical philosophy to say words mean different things in different contexts, and I certainly am not Austrian :D).

In this context, I believe power is the ability to influence your outside environment at differing scales. From the local, the regional, the national, the global, etc.

In this case, resources like fiscal currency, social currency, military assets, etc., create latent power.

Human needs are quite simple. Shelter, food, water, and community. While I do not exactly believe in self-actualization, to make advancements as a species and as a person we often need stability. So I understand why we typically want "more" as a society.

But I see those who already hold immense amounts of power yearning and grasping for more. And my only thought is, "Why?"

Unfortunately, there are many answers depending on the lens we look through.

From the perspective of a CEO at a publicly-traded company, the design of the stock market simply requires infinite growth. Likewise, the company is legally required to do its most to raise the stock price for shareholders.

I once knew someone who already had stable income, owned his own home, but he was obsessed with becoming the next Rockefeller. He spoke so much of wanting to accumulate massive amounts of wealth for philanthropy projects. Yet I doubted his sincerity, why glorify an exploitative businessman rather than glorify the scale of good you could do?

In fact, I believe most grasping for massive amounts of power distill itself into hubris: the desire for legacy, the qualification of one's existence. To be remembered, the false equivalence to being witnessed.

I believe that the desire for legacy through power is a possession of how you wish to be remembered, not as you currently are.

Would it feel more real to be remembered from a narrow perspective or to be fully witnessed for the totality of your being, even if only once?

Likewise, I must ask, "You wish to be remembered, but for what?"

From the cosmic perspective, in less than a blink of the eye, we will be many thousands of years in the future. Do you know the names of many successful Roman merchants? Even the names of kings and queens from only 750 years ago are vaguely held. Even with the advent of technology, you will likely be at most a footnote.

You will, undoubtedly, be forgotten.

This is liberation. Knowing this, you are permitted to live your life as you truly desire rather than how you wish others to perceive you. And you can spend more energy doing the least harm to the other people sharing this paradox with you :)

If accumulating massive amounts of power, for individuals, is mostly pointless, why do people still grasp for more? Why are they afraid to start living?

I understand that it often is reduced to the desire for meaning in life. Is there anything more sad than someone being gifted with the paradox of life and to live for disembodied abstractions rather than embodied experiences?

I also wonder if this behavioral pattern is innate. I am unsure at what ratio biological and cultural influences play. Personally, I merely see myself as a random person who enjoys writing for the sake of it. All I want is to be safe, loved, and fed. I am inclined to believe that the desire for more power is primarily cultural.

The implications of the accumulation of power conduits, like social currency, are real. And they are often negative. I saw a lawmaker smirk after someone stated the bill they signed would remove healthcare from millions of constituents. For what? So that they are perceived as someone dutiful to their political party, and thus seen as more trustworthy? So that they show how heartless they are, so they can show the world that they "won"?

I am skeptical of the accumulation for latent power because it often is rooted in baser emotions, and often are the genesis of personal and systemic harm.