ORIGIN OF POWER
Before civilization we were violent because without laws and institutions man was free and this is called STATE OF NATURE (i.e. the freedom of an individual to follow his instincts and consequently do damage from all sides)
HOW DID WE CREATE THE RULES?
Civilization is a compromise because if in the wild we live in absolute freedom survival is difficult to defend, therefore civilization is a truce that allows us to live with less chance of being killed
WHY DO WE WANT EVERYTHING?
Richard Dawkings said that it’s not us who behave like this but our genes, we are machines programmed to make these genes survive to do so we need resources such as food and water and procreation to transfer part of the genes into another individual.
Animals fight for food and reproduction this involves a high expenditure of energy for this man has organized himself saying you take this and I that creating the states (created to entrust our innate violence to an external entity that protect).
HOW DID WE ORGANIZE WE?
Our roles have been decided based on our physical and mental strength finishing this in pecking order (every single individual finds his space in society the strongest animals are positioned at the top of the pyramid and the weakest and most submissive ones at the bottom)
HOW MUCH IS THE SINGLE WORTH?
Why do a few people decide the fate of thousands of people?
Powerful people have power means the ability to make people do what you want, it is not constant it varies according to circumstances such as at work, home and other places.
WHY DO YOU CHANGE WITH POWER?
People with a higher sense of power experience less distress and less compassion and show greater autonomous emotional regulation in the face of another person’s suffering (Kelter Dacher psychologist)
POWERFUL PEOPLE BEHAVE AS IF THEY HAVE SUFFERED A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY, are more impulsive, less aware of the risks and have lost empathy with other people.
BECAUSE THAT’S HOW IT IS?
In one experiment they showed a video in which a person squeezes a rubber ball in one hand to people, in people with little power the movement of squeezing the ball as in the video worked without problems.
In powerful people there was a reduction of the reflex as if they were anesthetized, the most puzzling thing was that powerful people had been manipulated to feel this way, so if a powerful person plays that role for a certain period he will become more insensitive to other people’s emotions.
The loss of empathy is often not a conscious thing but it is a side effect of power and they stop imitating others.
WHY DO YOU BECOME NUTS?
Probably because in this way our brain can focus on work and important things rather than the emotions of others, because our cognitive system is full of information and it must be skimmed, to put aside useless information it is necessary to conserve energy, it’s called the cognitive economy.
Another explanation is that having this psychological distance from others makes us more “cold-blooded” so we can make more difficult decisions such as firing a person.
This distance perhaps serves to defend one’s integrity or one’s ego cognitive dissonance.
Power is given to those groups or nations that promote the interests of the greater good in a socially intelligent way power makes many individuals impulsive and out of tune with others this makes them inclined to act abusively and to lose esteem for their peers what people want from the leader or social intelligence is what harms the experience of power.
A person who comes to power brings with him a disturbing principle which, in the absence of understanding it, leads to a dangerous personality he feels free and important to huge groups of people without realizing that the very power that envelops them influences our own choices we become optimizing machines that lead us to want to reach a point of positivity without negativity, we distance ourselves and at the same time we also create an inner monster.
“This is how the potential for depressive states increases and above all the construction of several contradictory identities that coexist in the same person. “
– Byung-chul han
HOW TO IMPROVE SOCIETY FROM DESTRUCTIVE POWER?
It’s no use pointing the finger at a ruthless oligarch because after he’ll become even more ruthless, if you do so, you and the others who pointed the finger will create these monsters.
You have to use his words and his point of view to make him realize that what he is doing is wrong.
You also need to understand monsters so you don’t create more.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, you’ll pass the test
a, but if you speak to him in his language you will get to his heart.”– Nelson Mandela
