I don’t remember who wrote this, but they made the point that we all associate the word “greedy” with an excessive desire for money and material possessions, and it’s always a bad trait. But we have no common understanding that there’s an identical problem with a desire for more power.
We don’t even have a word for it— the suggestion was the word “preedy.” I don’t think we will be able to make that fetch happen, but the concept is sound. As an example, Barack Obama preaches constantly against “greed,” but his life has been dedicated to accumulating ultimate power. He was never judged on this probable greed for power.
And what is the actual goal of a person who is greedy for more money? It’s really just greed for power, because money is worth nothing except as far as it gives you power to acquire goods, services, and influence.
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not Interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me. -1984
I don’t remember who wrote this, but they made the point that we all associate the word “greedy” with an excessive desire for money and material possessions, and it’s always a bad trait. But we have no common understanding that there’s an identical problem with a desire for more power.
We don’t even have a word for it— the suggestion was the word “preedy.” I don’t think we will be able to make that fetch happen, but the concept is sound. As an example, Barack Obama preaches constantly against “greed,” but his life has been dedicated to accumulating ultimate power. He was never judged on this probable greed for power.
And what is the actual goal of a person who is greedy for more money? It’s really just greed for power, because money is worth nothing except as far as it gives you power to acquire goods, services, and influence.
Wise words.
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not Interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me. -1984