[nek]

A lot of the "elite" are either incredibly old or ailing to various degrees. So I'm wonder, what keeps them motivated to continue accumulating more and more power, esp. since they have so much already? I think Soros is 85, the oldest Rockafeller is something like 101. What drives a person to continue down this path vs. enjoying their family and remaining time on earth?

[thoughtgypsy]

(08-11-2016 06:07 PM)nek Wrote:  

A lot of the "elite" are either incredibly old or ailing to various degrees. So I'm wonder, what keeps them motivated to continue accumulating more and more power, esp. since they have so much already? I think Soros is 85, the oldest Rockafeller is something like 101. What drives a person to continue down this path vs. enjoying their family and remaining time on earth?

http://www.ponerology.com/evil_2b.html

[The Black Knight]

The high of winning.

Winning when you are poor?

Getting a stable place to live; being able to support a family.

Winning when middle/upper class?

Fancy college, prestigious job title, bigger house, live in nice neighborhood.

Winning at the elite level?

Becoming fuck you rich which makes it much easier to gain power of cities/cultures/countries and imposing your will on others.

[Peregrine]

(08-11-2016 06:07 PM)nek Wrote:  

A lot of the "elite" are either incredibly old or ailing to various degrees. So I'm wonder, what keeps them motivated to continue accumulating more and more power, esp. since they have so much already? I think Soros is 85, the oldest Rockafeller is something like 101. What drives a person to continue down this path vs. enjoying their family and remaining time on earth?

The fundamental misunderstanding is not realizing how much fun and addictive the power game is to the elites. It's a better high than sex.

[Onto]

(08-11-2016 06:07 PM)nek Wrote:  

A lot of the "elite" are either incredibly old or ailing to various degrees. So I'm wonder, what keeps them motivated to continue accumulating more and more power, esp. since they have so much already? I think Soros is 85, the oldest Rockafeller is something like 101. What drives a person to continue down this path vs. enjoying their family and remaining time on earth?

I imagine if you're that rich you can afford to take some time off and do whatever you want, with your family or not and they have done it several times.

Things is, after a month or two of freedom you yearn for purpose, some kind of work, something that makes you feel productive in this world.

There's only so long you can lay on the beach with the family until you get bored.

Another question is "Why do they keep doing the same old thing?" in regards to work. Why does Paul McCartney keep writing music? His glory days are long over (musically) and he doesn't need the money.

Maybe it's because another answer hasn't appeared to him yet. He's still stuck in the same old one of writing another song. Maybe he feels he hasn't written the perfect one yet, who knows?

Maybe the money managers just enjoy the game. Maybe they convince themselves they are accumulating the wealth for noble uses later on. Who knows?

[Penta Sahi]

(08-11-2016 06:29 PM)Onto Wrote:  

I imagine if you're that rich you can afford to take some time off and do whatever you want, with your family or not and they have done it several times.

Things is, after a month or two of freedom you yearn for purpose, some kind of work, something that makes you feel productive in this world.

There's only so long you can lay on the beach with the family until you get bored.

Very much this.

I've done a couple of Tim Ferris "mini retirements" between jobs, and it's great to have all that freedom, but at some point you get bored and you want to do something.

The fondest memories I have are actually during times of high stress when I was working with a team towards achieving a goal.

Something to do, and someone to do it with.

[Speculation]

On an individual level I think their minds can be described by a Will to Power. I would think personality disorders such as sociopathy would be more common in the elite because of the benefits of ruthlessness in attaining that level of wealth/power in the first place.

Even if they pursue 'the Greater Good' or utopianism, they are more dangerous because of their greater ability to interfere with the lives and happiness of others. The use of intermediaries would make it easier to rationalise their 'do-gooding' because they wouldn't directly see any negative outcomes from their actions.

On an organisational level whether you're talking the Bilderberg Group or the like, I think the organisations personality would become inhuman similar to that of a nation state. Nation states don't relate to each other like normal people; the pursuit of national interest requires the sacrifice of some people's lives and happiness. Where a person might find that unthinkable, an organisation might see it as the cost of doing business.

[HOD]

Some time I ponder, is power learn or develop by certain groups of people (hegemony)? And they ain't peaceful caring people.

Money and power only attracts a certain types of people or personalities, you have to have a strong desire/attraction for money, with that, a willingness to do certain things to achieve that end goal.

Perhaps being good with money is associated with a limited interest in empathy and sympathy.

Which lead to my theory, that most psychopath and sociopath are attracted to power, which leads them into powerful position of influence.

Think Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, Lenin, etc. Most of the people in power during the 1930-1950's were psychopaths. Even there rivals where just as psychotic. Committing murders to gain power.

Even today, Hillary is a social-path. She doesn't care about human life. She is willing to kill, in order to gain more power.

Guys like JFK, MLK, Gandhi, die young, there enemies are willing to commit murder to achieve there end goals.

You don't see alot of Buddhist dudes making money or gaining power.

The elite or hegemony are interested in one thing: its call power, and killing people is part of that.

[Chrome]

It's a game to them. Self-actualization, if you will.

[rotekz]

How Global Elites Forsake Their Countrymen
Those in power see people at the bottom as aliens whose bizarre emotions they must try to manage.

[Leo_Decashio]

I agree with the general sentiment expressed in this thread, that the elites are screwing over the middle class and don't give a $hit about anything except their narcissistic goals to add some more zeroes behind their name or status whore with one ineffectual foundation gala after another.

Here's the catch though. The true conspiracy is that there isn't one. The universe is indifferent.

There is churn in the elite population across domains from generation to generation. The WASP elite has been partially replaced by other groups with different values and heritage. These groups will in turn be replaced by others in the tides of history, and so on.

There is no ubermensch, no one man behind the curtain. There are delta boys that have been at the tip of the spear for globalization's push to bring every country onto the global financial and cultural network, and yet they end up working at a gas station in Fayetteville. On the other hand, stick a guy like Zuck on the ground during the Arab Spring, a conflict that was facilitated by the technology he created, and he'd be f*cked, billions be damned.

The question in my mind isn't what the psychology of the elites are. The question is how would YOU act if you were one of them? Would you still have the moral compass you have sitting on the sidelines?

It sounds easy. But maybe the reality is a little scarier. I believe that there are good men that have made hard decisions, based on a calculus that seemed logical at the time, that have created the homogenized amoral mess we currently live in. I say this constructively. In order to change things for the better, we have to be cold-blooded in thinking about where things went wrong.

[Pride male]

Powerful men like to do to countries what normal men like to do to women.

[SoloEastWood]

I was thinking about this topic the other day and it inspired me to do a little creative writing with the perspective of someone born into the elite.

Let’s say you wake up tomorrow as a multi-billionaire. You are a member of, not just the 1% but the 1% of the 1%.

Let’s say you inherited this money from your family. Your Great-Great Grandfather was an oil tycoon and your family’s wealth is somewhere in the hundreds of billions.

You grew up with everything handed to you. You were endowed a sense of pride, a sense of power and responsibility that you were chosen to influence the world unlike anyone else. You and your family perceive this entitlement as modern-day Divine Right. Just as Royal families were under the assumption that since they ultimately, were born into power and influence instead of poverty and slavery that they had been chosen by God or they are God’s themselves.

The United States Constitution states that all men are created equal and are given unalienable rights by God. Many religions, philosophers and cultural movements echo this same idea. Most people would agree that we are all “human beings” and one person is no better than the next.

You scoff at the mere thought of this. There are individuals whom owe massive amounts debt to private companies, as well as their own State and Federal governments. These same governments, as a whole, have debts owed to “YOU” and your family. You think to yourself, how silly can the common person be to think that we are all equal?

You and your family are unfazed by war, famine, drought, natural disaster, revolution or any other vice in which the common person has little control or protection from. You have the resources already put in place to protect yourselves from these types of things. You have multiple safe-houses, underground bunkers, multi-million dollar yachts, private helicopters and jets that are fully equipped with the necessary items to survive an extended period of chaos.

You don’t look at war as a bad thing. You look at war as an investment. You own parts of the military industrial complex. You make profits from the production of tanks, fighter planes, battleships, weapons and ammunition. You often fund both sides of the war because your well-being is unaffected by these conflicts. You do not lose sleep over the numerous casualties of soldiers and innocent civilians. You view this as a justified means of population control and a way to make a huge profits.

You are a member of an elite class which meets with other global members to discuss how you will use your money and influence to prod the cattle and sheep into a desirable direction. You take advantage of the two party rat race and you push through candidates in government that are easily influenced by power and your money. Candidates that are willing to sell-out their own people they supposedly represent, in order for a small piece of the pie. These “Career Politicians” lie and deceive their way through the ranks of government with the best interest of not “the people” but you and your agenda.

You control the media. You own television stations, news publications, entertainment industries and social media outlets. You attempt to control information and decide, through various platforms, what popular culture is. You have decided that the idea of the traditional family is unprofitable, while sex, violence, and vulgarity sells. You have news outlets working in collusion with your candidates political party. You control the narrative . You control the truth. You created an environment in which people are in constant disagreement over which side of the political spectrum is more just, which color of skin is more evil or which people are the actual victims. All this time the people, unable to decipher the truth are living in an alternate reality. You’ve successfully taken the attention offyourself and your agenda.

But what is your agenda?

Well, you look to your grandfather. Weak and frail, he’s pushing 100 years old. His health is rapidly diminishing despite all the efforts he has taken to prolong it. He’s seen technology advance exponentially. As a young man he remembers the invention of the FM radio, the television, the jet engine and medical advances such as penicillin. He now sees the age of cell-phones, robotics, autonomous cars, and nanotechnology dominating culture. He’s proud of this technology because his wealth and power played a huge role in the research and development of it. However, he’s not satisfied. He feels as if he’s going to die before they make their most significant scientific breakthroughs. You, yourself are not satisfied either. This man is your family. He is a part of the bloodline that represents the power and prosperity of your family lineage.

You try to use your all your resources, power, money, and influence to save this man. Otherwise, everything he has worked so hard to build will be for nothing. You know that you and your father (his son) will be fine. You will be alive when these technological advances bring about the transhumanist singularity. The scientists that you fund, project that in the coming years, you will be one of the 1st humans to merge with artificial intelligence. They tell you this is inevitable. You will have the opportunity to enhance your cognitive and physical capabilities. You will attain super-human like ability and ultimately, an indefinite life-span. You will transcend human status and become God-like.

You will look back in history and reflect upon all the suffering, death, and destruction as necessary means for your immortality. You were born with this immense opportunity and you don’t see it as luck but as fate.

All men are not created equal.

[National Crusader]

The elite is not just Soros or Rockefellers, but the system and human nature itself. They're just playing a small part. Once a system becomes too powerful it will only go down the road of maintaining its power which will strip aways the rights of citizens.

[RichieP]

The satisfaction of: winning, executing, building, creating, etc.

It can be healthy or unhealthy. Can come out of pure passion and love for their chosen "game" or industry, or could be that relentless pursuit of power/victory/influence/admiration that has never left them. Or realistically, a mix.

[thoughtgypsy]

Their behavior does not fall under the normal spectrum of human nature. By trying to dismiss it as such only serves to give cover to the true underlying cause.

Psychopaths have a physical inability to experience empathy, an insatiable desire to control others, and they derive immense, almost sexual pleasure from the suffering of their victims.

They are not like us. Their behavior patterns are so far removed from normal, healthy human beings, that it would almost be more practical to consider them as a different species entirely, incapable of rehabilitation.

Part of the reason information on the phenomena of psycopathy is hard to come by may be due their disproportionate influence at the higher levels of power. To seek political and legal cover for their tendencies, they often gravitate towards positions of power and influence to avoid repercussions. This has been confirmed in studies that show the prevalence of psychopaths in different professions. It's not just confined to one society, and information regarding this subject has been suppressed in other societies as well.

Quote:

During World War II, Łobaczewski worked for the Polish Home Army, an underground Polish resistance organization. After the war, he studied at Jagiellonian University under professor of psychiatry Edward Brzezicki.[2] Łobaczewski's class was the last to receive an education uninfluenced by Soviet ideology and censorship, after which psychiatry was restricted to Pavlovian concepts. The study of genetics and psychopathy was forbidden.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_ponerology

Łobaczewski studied the nature and behavior of psychopaths for decades, and despite being targeted and harassed, was able to finally publish his work a few years ago. There's no better information on the topic that I've seen.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1897244258/

Until we understand the nature of psychopaths, our analysis will be incomplete, and the behavior of the elites will continue to puzzle us.

[TheBowery]

Their strategy really comes down to one question: as a member of the elite who wants to increase its power and control, would you rather have most people be free-thinking and able to defend themselves physically/intellectually, or brainwashed defenseless sheep who accept the propaganda and entertainment you feed them? Roosh's cultural collapse theory is the seminal work on this topic, and what we are seeing now is an acceleration of their end-game.

[chakalaka]

It´s exactly the same psychology you feel towards a black african dying of hungry while our companies steal their oil. We don´t give a flying fuck. The distance between the elite and commons have probably grown to record levels in the US. In Europe it´s been like this for a long time. Elite has no idea what it´s like to catch a packed subway. Eat shit food. Not have money to pay rents or even food.

The only way to avoid this rotten cycle is to renew the elite. From time to time.

[Zanardi]

My opinion is that, instead of asking ourselves if they like power or not, a better use of our minds would be to ask ourselves how can we get into the elites aswell.

[Leonard D Neubache]

^Make a billion dollars.

Not complicated.

Also not possible.

[Sooth]

(08-15-2016 06:52 AM)thoughtgypsy Wrote:  

Their behavior does not fall under the normal spectrum of human nature.

I disagree. I think it is the definition of human nature.

How often do you think the people you work with are idiots?
Every day for me. I think 90% of people I work with are idiots.

As I grow older though I realize this is human nature. This is me thinking that I'm more important, worth more and owed more than I am.

[dispenser]

Retirement is essentially a working class concept, related to the decline in physical strength.

Situations that require snap decisions may be for young men, but long term planning is still entirely open for men 80+ years old.
If they get tired easily, they can space their workdays out. There's no reason to completely disengage.

[WestIndianArchie]

The Koch brothers want to remake America and the world by extension into something they want to see.

Same with Kanye West and George Lucas.
And Elon Musk and Bill Gates. Competing ideas on how the world should be. Some more effective, some more compelling.

The gods battle for their visions and we compare notes on portable generators and brag about bug out bags.

WIA

[blck]

(08-12-2016 05:29 AM)Chrome Wrote:  

It's a game to them. Self-actualization, if you will.

What would you do if women, cars & money were unlimited resources ?

Who would you turn to if all the people you knows were with you only for even crumb of your unlimited resources ?

How would you behave once you understands that people can be price-tagged and bought ?

Power bring the worst answers to all this questions.

[Max Henrich]

I think this is important:

(08-11-2016 06:07 PM)nek Wrote:  

I think Soros is 85, the oldest Rockafeller is something like 101.

Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffett are pretty old too. They won't be here forever. What will happen when they finally drop dead?