Showing a candle to Lord Acton’s preeminent solar flares: power is jealous and absolute power is absolutely jealous. So it would seem that power does not only corrupt, power is also jealous and incredibly intelligent. This jealousy is revealed in different ways, the fast paced youth is stopped by the established order, the depressed class is kept at bay by the presence of the society and state, the competitor is challenged and removed at all costs. Power is jealous. And, the more the power the stronger the jealousy. History is witness to the fact that whenever power was being distributed anew, there was conflict. Be it between states, classes, communities, or people. Be it in any form or format.
Thinking of the motives of man, and then thinking about the onion like layers of abstraction of our motives. There is only one answer. Power. At the bottom of our conscious motives for all the action that we conduct in our lives lies the continuous, overriding and absolute need to gain power in all it’s forms. This power that we have gained up until now defines our position in the pecking order of our little universe of human society. Predation is a very prevalent trait in people and the more powerful will try to subjugate the less powerful who will according to needs kow tow to the more powerful.
Power shows itself in our social lives in many different ways. Being social animals our power and position in the pecking order is defined by our social standing based on wealth, contacts and personal charm and very minutely on physical power. Mankind has outgrown the period of our youth when only raw physical ability was the only factor of our power. Thank God. Now power is defined in multiple factors that form a different cocktail mixture in every individuals life. Money and other assets are power. Social standing and contacts are power. Personal ability and charm are power. And now, increasingly, knowledge is power.
Devolution of power from few hands into more hands and eventually all hands is democracy.
Devolution and dissemination of knowledge will democratize society and make all men a part of the global aristocracy of complete and creative men.
This is the process that has been going on for ages. The revolutions against kings and aristocracies, the definitions of law, the movements for equal rights are all a part of the great movement towards mankind’s sentience. Towards eventual understanding of the self. And hence forth towards achievement of ideals never before known to exist. There is a strong wind in the air or libertarian and anarchist ideals winning across the world. The tea party movement. Direct democracy. Across our planet, power is trickling down to the masses of people.
So, is it technology that will finally liberate us from ourselves? Is this the internet’s coming of age? Wikileaks?
And now to the most important question of our era: “Is this it?”
could it be possible that a bloc which ‘jealously’ guards its power through lies and deceit has begun to notice an empty audience to their increasingly unbelievable rantings and come up with something like it? in my humble opinion, the horses mouth has found a new face. they’ve named its wikileaks.