Modern Political Power: Motivation and Expression

The basic religion of all life is the religion of Self.

What is a religion, really? It is worship. It is recognition of things that are greater than we are. Things that are beyond understanding and attainment, and yet point us in the right direction.

To worship a thing is to say, “this is what is good, and it stands apart from what is not. This is what I seek to be more like”.

To worship is to praise, but its purpose is to clarify what is to be emulated.

Religion then is not really about the object of worship — it is about YOU, and what you seek to become.

Therefore when we worship, we worship a potential future version of ourselves. We worship our own aspirations. That is religion, and there is no other.

How does this relate to politics?

When a person takes action, they act in their own favor. No person in the history of the world has ever intentionally acted otherwise. Every action taken is for one’s own perceived benefit. A person may be wrong, they may make mistakes, but no one would ever act against their own interests intentionally.

Even those who sacrifice themselves for others do so because they believe it is the best course of action for themselves. They would rather see themselves as a martyr than give up such an opportunity.

Or maybe they would rather see the success of someone they love over their own. But even this is still acting in accordance with their own priorities.

A person can value anything, and these values can change over time. But regardless of what a person’s values are, they will for sure act in line with them.

People act in line with their values, and people choose their values based on their own betterment. People value what they believe will make them better.

So here we are, back to the Self again.

It is natural and normal to base your life on your own betterment. Every animal on this planet acts in their own favor, and so do humans. It is a part of living in this universe.

This self centered behavior has often been condemned as evil. It is not evil. It is not good, either. It is simply inevitable. Individuals acting on their own behalf is just a fact of life. Every time we look at issues that may point away from self centered behavior, we arrive back at the interests of the self again. Religion, worship, values. They are all aligned to the interests of the Self. Every action is self actualization. No other purpose would even make sense.

Now apply this to politics.

In the political sphere, there is this bizarre notion that actions that are taken by politicians are for the “public good”. I have no idea what this means, and I don’t think anyone else does either — but it sure sounds good.

Politicians are people. They are not some special subset of humans that can somehow avert human nature. They are just like the rest of us, and adhere to the same laws of nature that we all do.

They too, like the rest of us, are self centered. They place themselves at the center of their own universe. They act to improve their lot. When they take political actions, it is no different than any other action they take in their life. They will use political mechanisms to improve their circumstances. Every political action taken, just like every non-political action taken, is done in the interest of self actualization.

Politicians seek to become the fullest versions of themselves, as people. Just as we all do. So when they make laws, debate issues, give speeches, issue apologies and declarations and statutes — they do so out of their own personal interest.

There is no such thing as “public interest” in fact. There are only lots of lots of personal interests all coinciding and interacting.

This is a tough pill to swallow for some people. It is actually very logical and easy to identify, but it is contradictory to what the system has told children over and over again since grade school.

But if you simply accept this “universal self interest” and apply it to the field of politics, a lot of what was once confusing will begin to come into focus.

Politicians generally want to maintain their positions of power, if they are good politicians. This maintenance of power (supposedly) relies on the votes of the people. So to maintain power politicians must act in a way that will ensure people continue to vote for them.

Therefore the idea of politicians having “integrity” or a “moral compass” is ludicrous. There is nothing motivating them but the drive for more votes, and they will create whatever social mask is needed to generate the appearance that their voters desire.

This scheme, by the way, is not exclusive to politicians. We all do this to a degree — we all wear the mask that will bring us the most of what we want. But it is more obvious in politicians because the public’s attention is so much more fixated on them — and their only real source of power is public approval.

To say that this makes politicians “fake” is not even accurate however — this masking and molding to the apparent will of the voters is the real human self. Nothing could be more authentic or more human than a desire to recreate oneself to gain approval from the group.

Now there is a higher level of this political shapeshifting that becomes apparent once the mental hurdle of what motivates politicians is overcome and the fact of self interest is accepted.

Politicians, knowing that their power stems from the will of the voters, also must understand that the will of the voters may go astray from their own beliefs and platforms. Therefore it is a natural logical step to understand that while it is useful for a politician to bend his own Self to the will of the people, it may be more beneficial (that is, more in line with self interest) to bend the will of the people to be in line with the politician’s.

If this were to be achieved, the politician would then be self actualizing on two fronts. They would maintain their power by way of voter agreement, and they would also be able to accomplish, through political mechanisms, their own personal desires. If the voter population happened to agree with the natural goals of the politician himself, that would be a win/win for him. He could do what he wanted, plus have the support of his voters to boot.

Herein enters the tendency of those in power (both proper politicians as well as those who govern from behind the scenes) to do everything they can to manipulate the voting public’s opinion until it aligns with their own.

This is done through media control, staged acts of violence, protests, interviews, speeches, and political theater of all kinds. It can even be done through direct control of other, seemingly non-political institutions.

Especially effective is the creation of allegiances between political groups and information control organizations, such as large social media companies.

Such political groups may also seize control of banks, internet service providers, power grids and other providers of essential services to use as leverage in the case of non-compliance with whatever stated message is supposed to be agreed with.

By using these connections, the public is manipulated and coerced into believing that the politician’s goals are in fact their own goals.

Therefore we see a mechanism, which is unfortunately something intrinsic to a political system based on voting power, that incentivizes politicians to remodel public opinion, by force if necessary, into their own personal belief set.

This relationship between powerful government actors and private sector business leaders is overtly strengthening in modern times.

The connection is becoming so strong that it is increasingly difficult to determine which force is giving the orders and which is obeying them. All that can be seen from an outsider’s point of view is that both powerful government and powerful business interests are aligned — in both ideology and action. The main purpose of this alliance is the control of public opinion.

In this way a circular feedback loop has been created such that the people “at the top”, through both public sector and private sector means, control the interests of the public. Once the public willfully accepts the programming they have been given, these Oligarchs then seek to “obey” the interests of the people, the voting public. This is only an apparency however, as the voting public all along is only regurgitating beliefs that the Oligarchs themselves instilled.

We can only speculate on this, but it is most likely the case that those people at the very top of the global social hierarchy control both governments and large business interests — thereby making it easier to align the two.

This is the modern political system, and it is a result of human nature, the religion of the Self, playing out with respect to the proliferation of high speed global communication systems.