Will to Power

Humans possess a will to live – as do other animals. It is quite natural. Humans also possess, according to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, a Will to Power. This, as far as it is possible to know, is something unique to humans.

The Will to Power leads to human suffering, death and destruction – it’s the story of humanity, and these things will only be brought to an end when the Will to Power is overcome and channelled towards altruism. And the only way to do that is for individuals to commit themselves to achieving this goal, which if you look carefully, is exactly what Jesus said. Religion in its present form though is not the way to achieve this – it has been an exercise in containment which has also been corrupted by the Will to Power. It is time now to move on and for everyone to begin a journey towards …

I deviate from the point of the blog, which was to focus on the Will to Power. If you want to understand this and where it leads, then the best place to start is a novel called Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This book is a work of art, so do not be put off by the strange structure. When you start reading it you will be wondering where the storyline (in actual fact several storylines) is heading, and it will not be until towards the second half of the book that you will see that it is about all the different manifestations of the Will to Power and the consequences and the ways in which people justify these consequences (e.g. progress, or for your own good, etc.), which demonstrates another point – human delusions and denial know no bounds. The Will to Power of scientists is also addressed, along with the corporate Will to Power, the two things now being already the same.

To quote from the end of Cloud Atlas: “Tortuous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president’s pen or a vainglorious general’s sword”. To this I would add that these advances can be lost at a stroke by the foolish words and deeds of myopic, reductionist, and deluded scientists, chief scientific advisors and former chief scientific advisors. Now is the time for peaceful opposition to such people. Now is the time to develop a different type of civilisation, where their quest to power will be seen for exactly what it is, and where those who are the slaves of ideology and dogma and who think they are not, will have no place.

Everything is connected …