Why do powerful people want more power?

Constantly seeking more power over others is usually a sign of a failure to mature.

Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash

“Money doesn’t buy you happiness”. Well, yes, in it’s absolute sense - you cannot exchange one dollar for one unit of happiness. But a lack of money can make you more likely to be unhappy.

There are no absolutes here. Rich people can most certainly be unhappy and there are some people living in abject poverty who have surmounted one of life’s greatest challenges and are happy despite their hardships. Generally though, if you are on the breadline - struggling to provide the essentials to your family - then sorrow and misery are close by. Generally, if you have enough money to not have to worry about surviving then you have a greater chance of achieving happiness. These are the established trends.

It is not a linear relationship. It is not that the more money you have the greater your chance of happiness. Indeed, most estimates suggest that when you get past an annual income of $250k then more money does not correlate to more happiness. I know. $250k! Most of us would be quite happy with that. And the truth is, most who reach those income levels are. Even those who have annual incomes of over $1m can be content and not constantly seek greater and greater riches. It is those who seem unable to achieve such contentment, who seem to have an insatiable appetite to make more and more money and gain more and more power that we are concerned with here.

There are a variety of reasons why someone who is already financially very comfortable will seek to gain more power for themselves. Most reasons stem from upbringing and their own view of the world.

Early on in life our brains are quite primitive. We are understanding where the dangers are and how to satisfy our primal appetites. We begin to understand the concept of reward and punishment, and typically adjust our behaviour accordingly. In the hyper-civilised world of the human, much of this reward/punishment compass is directed by the emotional consequences of our actions - not merely will I or won’t I get fed, but will I or won’t I be accepted by the group. If I act a certain way someone in my family/group will either be affectionate and welcoming or upset and push me away. We then adjust our behaviour to be accepted by the group to which we belong, usually.

Next we start developing the so called ‘higher cortical functions’. Simply put, we start developing the rest of our brain beyond the primitive. Perhaps the most relevant here is our frontal lobe development, where we learn reasoning and develop our sense of self. Over time, one’s persona - how we think the world sees us - develops and we gain at least a vague sense of what kind of person we are and what we may be able to offer. I make this sound easy. It is usually quite challenging as we (typically in our late teens) start testing the boundaries of the society in which we live - ‘how much room is there for me to be’. During this period of development our desire to find and create space to exist can be overwhelming.

Most of us (most!) get through this and then start engaging our whole brains to work out where we fit in civilisation. We have understood the boundaries of the space we inhabit, we know ourselves - even if vaguely, and then we use our whole brains to try and fit the two together.

The problem with adults who crave money and power for only themselves is that during their development there was something missing. We can pick at the specifics but, in general, the missing component seems to be civility.

Over Millenia, the most significant shaper of development has been the civilisation you live in. The boundaries you test as you grow are the boundaries set by the society in which you live. Whether it is when you are young and these are the boundaries set and examples given by your parents or when older in school or when older still with laws and the norms of society, it is civilisation that you must measure yourself against.

Again, generally speaking, it is the sense of civility that remains consistent. Respect each other. Co-operate with each other. Contribute to your society. Be kind. These are lessons we teach from infancy right through childhood. These are the qualities most of us seek in friends and partners. It is, I fear, a lesson those who develop an insatiable appetite for money and power have failed to receive.

Whether it is distant or disengaged parents, or growing up in a society that has lost its civilised sense, or an overly privileged upbringing that has no visible dependence on civilisation, or any number of reasons, the greedy have failed to fit themselves to the world simply because they have failed to see the world for what it is: a civilisation.

Instead, often, it gets to the point where they seek to remake the world so they can fit it to themselves. To do this they need power.

If I can explain it slightly differently. If you are brought up learning that being civil to others leads to acceptance then you are likely to seek a way of fitting into the world that contributes to civilisation. If however, you were brought up learning that individual achievement and accumulating more for yourself is the way to achieve acceptance then your drive will remain to take more for yourself.

In such a greedy state, the truth remains that no matter how much you accumulate you will never be truly accepted. You can’t be. Not on an emotional level. Empathy, kindness, and the humility to learn from others is absent. Connection is lost. Those stuck in this negative feedback loop of self-serving behaviour leading to greater distance from civilisation can then become driven to change civilisation itself so they can fit in. As I say, for this they need power.

Of course, there are those who seek power to genuinely improve civilisation. There are plenty of people who have accrued much wealth and/or power and then spend it to better their environment. So long as they have a strong civilised sense then such attempts at betterment will likely benefit society. The problem is when the self-centred think they know what’s best for the rest of us. A bigger problem is when they manage to claw their way into positions to actually change society.

Like when your doctor tells you to eat more vegetables - it’s boring but that doesn’t make it any less truthful -, the scourge of the self-centred stems from upbringing. Educating our young is as important as keeping them healthy. Achievement is important, but teaching kindness is more important, both for the health of civilisation, and, ultimately, to help them find connection within it.