Power and Happiness

Power and Government

How did governments get to be so powerful? [1]

A government can only survive if it can compete against other governments. A strong government requires that a high percentage of the population is available to provide military, technical and other assets.  Therefore, the main purpose of government is to get as much power as possible without getting overthrown.

An efficient government requires the essential needs are provided by the lowest percentage of the population.  One of the most important essential needs that has been a factor in population growth is efficient food production.

Once there is efficient food production, then what follows is higher population density and then a specialization of the people.  The “extra” people can be used for creating technology (particularly related to military), material items, distribution of goods, etc.

The book, “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, says that there are four important requirements that any government must perform in order to survive.  They are:

1. Disarm the populace and arm the elite

2. Redistribute tribute (taxes) in popular ways

3. Control violence and promote happiness

4. Construct ideology or religion

Disarming the populace has been straightforward so far, because most current weapons require advanced technology that is not available to the masses.

It is fairly easy to convince people that they have a say in the redistribution of tribute by letting them vote for things that are inconsequential.  The uniformity of beliefs allows more people to be happy.

A large police state is useful for controlling the people and for war. Higher density populations require government to mediate disputes since many people do not know each other and will not trust a partisan mediator. The entertainment industry has pacified many individuals with video games, movies and spectator sports.

Governments, religion and corporations have all become linked together.  For a government to survive, it is important to collaborate with any existing institutions.  These institutions also all have many of the same requirements in order to survive.

All of these entities must show their power.  They do this by using statues and symbols. One example is the president’s jet, emperor’s litter or the pope mobile.  These symbols are especially valuable because mob mentality can be used to show how much the people want to follow a leader. Another example is the company mission statement or a country’s pledge of allegiance. Great benefit can be achieved by a few fanatics that are willing to die. Why are people thrown in prison for flag burning or sitting during the national anthem?

Another requirement is that the news media and ideas must be controlled.  This is particularly true for military excursions and elections.  Voting for a figurehead appears to give power to the individual in order to get “buy in”.  This makes the voter think that they cannot complain because they voted for the leader. The reality is that the elections are controlled. The visuals during the campaign[2] are controlled and which potential leaders can debate on television are controlled.  Even more will be controlled in the future [3].

The Present

The main ideology that is surviving is consumerism or corporatism[4].  The populace is very happy with their toys such as new cars and big houses, and the government encourages spending to produce taxes.  The GDP is the measure of wealth instead of using some “quality of life” measures[5]. The GDP goes up as the quality of life goes down.

Less than two percent of the population is used to produce food in the U.S.  Why do we need so many people working so hard?  In many homes (especially in Silicon Valley, where there is a great deal of wealth), both spouses work more than 8 hours a day to make an adequate living. Most people should have to work less than one day a week with the efficiency that has been achieved.

The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population, uses 25% of the world’s oil and pays more than 50 billion dollars a year for it, but it is difficult to know the true cost of oil.  Each missile launched in the Gulf War was in reality a subsidy for oil.

The future of the world is very bleak if consumption governments thrive. Is there another type of government that can survive?

The Future

Bill Joy has an interesting article in Wired magazine titled, “Why the future doesn’t need us” [6]. This article quotes Theodore Kaczynski who said that eventually intelligent machines would be more productive and smarter than people. It is possible that the populace will become useless, so it will be up to the elite to decide what will become of the masses. Ray Kurzweil thinks that machines will become smarter than humans by the year 2030[7].

Bill Joy thinks that with self replicating nanotechnology and biotechnology, that it will be possible for individuals to become powerful terrorists. This means that the individual will have more power than the elite will desire.

These people are portrayed as crackpots in the media.  Perhaps the government inserted Bill Joy as a crackpot so that people think the issue is nothing to worry about. Did Kaczynski mail bombs, or were these plants by the government? What is at stake for the government?

Will we all become helpless domesticated animals?

Don’t let any dangerous memes escape!