power

It has long been said that money, or more correctly love of money, is the root of all evil. I do not believe that is true. If there is a root of all evil it is in my opinion love of power. What does rape have to do with money? Money gives you power. The world is grievously plagued, possibly to our perish, with people who have gained or had handed to them staggering amounts of power. And as the well known saying goes, which I generally agree with, power corrupts. That is what Lord of the Rings is all about. Love of power and addiction to it. Power has a tremendous lure to many people and the need for it can be every bit as addicting as any drug. The huge problem of course is that many people who seek power are  not good people. That is frequently why they seek power.  And then the need for and love of power overcomes their concern for others. And the more power that a person has the more harm that they can do. There are learned and studied people who suggest, probably correctly, that a lot of very powerful people are psychopaths. And many other powerful people, while not full blown psychopaths, have some tendencies towards it. They are people without consciences or concern for their fellow human beings. This is not to say that there are no good people who have power. There are some. But they are forced to try to operate in environments that are largely controlled by people who are not good.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2011/06/14/why-some-psychopaths-make-great-ceos/
http://www.sott.net/article/244013-Psychopaths-in-business-and-politics-Beware
 There will be different opinions on which powerful figures fit into this category but I suspect that almost everybody will agree that is is a real problem. And even those powerful figures who are not clearly psychopathic often find themselves in situations in which they are required to act in ways that a psychopath would act. They may well feel bad about what they do but they have no choice if they are to hold on to their power. It is part of their job. Corporations and often governments and the military and the worlds of the rich and powerful  are ruthless places where human values are often spit upon.
  The only solution that I see to this problem is to not let anybody get tremendous wealth and power. Neither should we seek power ourselves. Human affairs and the proper running of the world do not require people who have vast power over others. The existence of very powerful people naturally causes democracy and the will of the people to be undermined.
  You may deduce from what I have said here that I do not believe that our current system of electing officials works. You would deduce correctly

My aim

My aim here with this blog is to lay out what I see as what is wrong with the world. Again maybe a bit pretentious but I see nothing wrong with speaking out if I believe that my thoughts may be helpful. I think that as long as I acknowledge that some or all of my thoughts may be no help at all to anybody then I am doing this with the right attitude. Take what you believe is useful and leave the rest. I am going to be talking a lot about power as I believe that love of power is at the root of all evil if there is a root of all evil. And I have no power and have no intention of trying to get power. Therefore there is no reason to be fearful of what I may say here. They are only words. Words alone can do no harm. But they can certainly influence people. But my only other option is to not speak and that does not feel right. Thoughts and words are important but only actions create change. Read and think about what I say here but only act when you are convinced through your own thought and analysis that your actions are the right ones and will create healthy change.. You alone are responsible for your actions. I will never accept hearing anybody say that they chose to act in a particular way or affect a particular change because of something that I said. I want to hear you say that you saw something that I said that you liked and after considerable thought about whether or not your actions were correct, chose to act. I do not want power. For you to make me responsible for your actions is to not take responsibility for them yourself.
  I will say at the start that I will almost certainly rewrite parts of this blog. Thinking is a continuous process and new thoughts and new information constantly comes along for a somebody who thinks a lot.  If I realize that something that I have said is mistaken or was not totally thought through then I reserve the right to change it. This blog is meant to represent the current state of my thinking, not necessarily what I thought months or years ago. I think that when it is important I will make changes clear and preserve what I previously thought so that my changes in thinking will be there for you to see.