“Tyranny is a habit. It has its own organic life. It develops finally into a disease. Blood and power intoxicate.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lord Acton)
Total power is not something people of strong character feel a need to possess; it is the provenance of the weak: mediocre, unfulfilled individuals of extreme arrogance, who have few moral scruples, and almost no capacity to control their actions, their emotions, their lusts, and their passions—the most dangerous human beings imaginable.
Power consumes those whose vanity and narcissism motivate them to fanciful and never-ending delusions of superiority. Within the human breast, power has its own organic life, worse than the most malignant cancer, ever-growing, never shrinking, with no medicine for its cure, constantly needing to be fed, and that only with more and more of its own kind—the insatiable monster who can never be satisfied, even at the cost of mountains of human skulls. It becomes a disease, an interminable, incurable malady that may not end even at death—it is often passed on to disciples. It is more intoxicating than alcohol or the most addictive drug known to man. Like the hopeless druggie, those craving and possessing power must constantly have their “fix,” and the drug must be increasingly more potent, more costly, and more destructive, to themselves and to others. When conquered by the will to power, a person convinces themselves they are omnipotent, that only they possess certainty, everybody else is inferior, that they alone have the answers, that the noble ends they seek justify whatever means they deem necessary to obtain them, because, in their high-minded vain egotism, only they have the betterment of mankind in view, and that the world simply cannot survive without their guidance. Those who oppose them are opposing Truth, the Only Truth, the True Progress of Humanity, and thus are evil, and must be silenced by any means necessary. And after extinguishing countless human hopes, dreams, and lives, they sit atop the pile, congratulating themselves on the “utopia” they have built, but ever vigilant for more dragons who need slaying. That is power. That isn’t strength, that is uncontrolled human weakness to its most malevolent extreme. It is the story of human history.
Down through the ages, very few politicians have demonstrated the ability to control the will to power that lurks within the human heart. America’s Founding Fathers understood that perfectly, which is why they wrote a constitution specifically defining and thus restricting the powers national government officials could exercise over other Americans. It’s also why James Madison said we should never trust anybody who has power. The Founders didn’t establish term limits for Congressmen, Senators, or Presidents, and perhaps they should have. But they thought frequent elections would be sufficient. Such hasn’t proven to be so. Our Founders were brilliant men, but no humans are endowed with infinite wisdom.
But their fear of power is not only evident in historical events that took place before and during their lifetime, but are equally evident since they died, especially in the last 100 years. Consider those who had power in the 20th century and how they finally relinquished it. Vladimir Lenin died as the head of Russia. So did Joseph Stalin. Adolf Hitler died in power. As did Mao Zedong, two North Korean Kims, and a host of other megalomaniacs. That is the intoxicating nature of power. Once obtained, only death conquers the craving. These are weak people who cannot control themselves so they must control others.
American politicians aren’t immune to this yearning, this will to power. They are somewhat restrained by our Constitution. Somewhat, but not enough, and many would love to abolish it entirely. Joe Biden is 80 years old. What is he doing still in Washington, D.C.? He has been there for 50 years. Why doesn’t he go home? The reason is simple. He is a very inferior man who covets power, whose power-disease has convinced him that he knows better how to run your life than you do, and, because he has the power, he is going to do everything he can to make you submit to the mythical utopia that delusions his mind. 80 years old, and he wants another four years of power. He is the last person in the country who should have it.
Well, maybe demented Diane Feinstein is his equal. Grassley. McConnell. Pelosi. How many other septua- and octogenarians exist in Washington who have plagued the nation for most of their adult lives? On both sides of the aisle, not just Democrats. They aren’t serving the people, they are inflating themselves in their own eyes. And destroying the country in the process. They want one thing—glory in their vision of themselves. They are no wiser than most Americans, they are only more conceited. Look at the mess they have created in Washington and around the country. Could any other group of people have done any worse?
Americans have given power to inadequate incompetents of mediocre ability, non-existent wisdom because of their ungodly character, but who ache to preserve it--for the reasons mentioned at the beginning of this column. It’s a disease, a cancer inside them, ever-growing, never, never satiated, always thinking their Utopia is just around the corner, one vote away, and “I must be here to cast that vote.” But their Utopia never arrives, and it never will. Only the dunghill grows deeper.
Term limits might be a partial answer, but electing better people, humble people, people who truly understand the dangers of power, people who mind their own business except for national necessities—that would be a superior solution. But those kinds of people are not the busybodies who salivate to control others. The sort of people needed are those whose character would largely forbid them from accepting the job.
So, we get Joe Biden for 50 years. And look at the results.
Many more articles, as well as audio and video podcasts, on my substack: mklewis929.substack.com. Free signup. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon. You can follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl. And rumble: lewandcou
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