Why are we humans so hungry for power?

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I once spent lots of time contemplating why people are so mean to one another when I should have been sleeping. I concluded that sometimes people are mean because they want to accumulate more power or maintain whatever power they have. (E.g. Many bullies are powerful people who prey upon powerless people like me.)

Recently, perhaps coincidentally, many of the bloggers whom I follow blog that they are striving for more power because when you are in a higher social position, people are more likely to respect you and even obey you, so you are more likely to succeed in your endeavors.

One Aspie (whom I don't know in real life) has written several blog posts elaborating why he is so obsessed with power. According to him, he has left several Aspie support groups due to power struggles. He converted to Christianity against his parents' wishes several years ago because he found out that many rich and powerful people are Christians. He wrote that he enjoys more opportunities to network with rich and powerful people after becoming a Christian. He has seen how politicians earn brownie points for themselves by launching initiatives that benefit the AS community, but these politicians aren't Aspies after all. He wrote that he is currently working towards becoming a leadership figure in his local AS community.

I have some questions after reading such blog posts... (I will be delighted if you reply based on your own experiences.)

1. When people admit that they are power hungry, can I assume that once these people accumulate enough power, then they will start making use of their high social position to exploit the powerless? Can I assume that such people will make use of their high social position to take revenge against those who have offended them in the past? Should I steer clear of power hungry people?

2. Many people have remarked that I don't seem as power hungry as my peers. I myself think that even though power is a good thing to have, I'm not very enthusiastic about pursuing it. I don't even possess the basic and necessary social skills needed to co-exist with other people in harmony, so I'm sure that I lack the Machiavellian (more advanced) social skills needed for people to succeed in power struggles. If you are power hungry, what drives you to be hungry for power? If you aren't power hungry, any idea why you aren't power hungry?

3. Am I guilty of stereotyping if I write that generally speaking, Aspies aren't as power hungry as NTs?

It seems to me that politics revolves around deception, networking, favors, debts, allies and enemies. That's why I would totally stink at it.

I describe myself as extremely power-hungry. However, this does not make me bad to people in any way and I don't see why bullying/hurting anyone would be an enjoyable thing. It would in fact be very painful for me to hurt someone.

I think it's in our nature in a sense.

Yes, I think that is true. Humans are ambitious and are always looking to constantly get better and out-do each other, there is no end to advancement in technology and progress in the world. That isn't to say that ambition and looking to better oneself is always considered evil, it simply means that were just trying to climb the ladder of success.

Because they are proud, and what pride seeks is more and more power.

"Enough power" doesn't exist for the person so engorged in their own pride, king solomon wrote about it in the bible how this is a 'chasing after the wind' in Ecclesiastes, this is also something that's remarked upon concerning the hedonic treadmill. Doesn't matter how much a person succeeds, they will always want more and more, it's an endless cycle.

That treadmill keeps people who love power on a constant never-ending quest for something that doesn't really exist, that being the point of satiation... They're chasing an illusion, and they're wasting their time on an illusion. The people that gather around them and love them for their power don't really love them because their love had never meant anything in the first place, it was tied to power which is something that goes away in our lifetime, as with other things. When the power goes away so goes the love with it.


It's why I say that people should be good first and then powerful second. When you have something that is good, then you will have cause to become powerful to protect it, but even when that power fades, you still have your goodness, which is something infinitely more worthy of love than power. Power is like a scalpel, in the hand of a surgeon it will save lives, but in the hand of a criminal it will take them, but in the end it's not what mattered the most, the best vessel for love is goodness.

What I hate about life here on this world is that it's really quite obvious if you want to be 'loved' you need power, but in the end, I know how pointless it all really seems because the people that would surround me under my 'powerful' circumstances, would be the first ones to abandon me should that power be stripped.

And I wonder how many couples would stay together if the one party gained 200 ilbs and lost their job and fell into a depression...not many. If we loved goodness and not power there would be a reason for a human to 'stand in the fire' for a loved one so to speak, but on this world it's really every man for themselves.

I just feel that the truth seems more or less "I'll give you the illusion of love if you give me security", I.E, power.

The topic of power always depresses me so much, makes everything seem so utterly pointless, and I guess that is precisely what Solomon felt in Ecclesiastes.

Because it makes one richer, more liked and more sexually attractive.

Vain reasons, but it's the truth.

I didn't do the poll, my answer is somewhere in between. I'm not usually a person to put someone else down and I'm definitely not someone to put myself over somebody as "better". If I tried to I would only be pretending to myself. BUT, that being said, you could say I'm hungry for "power". Not power because I want authority, I don't believe in authority, just equality, but I do want "power" because I like and want respect. I would think that more than anything that respect is the reason for people wanting power. Even the people who want the chance to boss someone else around as a change, to me, still sounds like it goes back to just wanting respect. So to give a confusing answer to this question; Yes, I want power, but no, I don't want to be powerful.

Because its almost human nature to try and seem to be better than everyone else and power makes you feel superior to everyone else. People always want someone to boss around,someone to do there chores,someone who they feel totally in control of which most humans do not have so like previously stated by other people its basically human nature