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Power

I like to idealize my work as some combination of engineering and mathematics. I like to “derive” things emotionally and logically.

Here is a proposition and and conclusion:

Power elevates testosterone, presumably in both men and women, although likely much more in men. Testosterone, in turn, helps counter feelings of shame.

Conclusion: those who seek power over others do so because it is a sort of drug which muted their chronic feelings of shame. Power is, as they say, a drug, and as a drug, like all drugs, it numbs unmanageable emotions.

If this is true, shame based societies will tend to be inherently violent. We (I) tend to think of Japan’s China in this way easily, but I would add at least Russia, Britain and Germany. In all, losing face is losing status is losing testosterone is a de facto attack and processed as such by the limbic system.

A clear corollary is that the “natural”, default moral code needs to be empowering, not emasculating. It needs to be possible to conform and still get your needs met in publicly acceptable ways. If you have a public and a private face, then the system is unintelligent which is forcing you into hypocrisy.

And in my view, a hypocrisy which still sees people getting their needs met somehow is better than one in which the saints feel constant biological pressure which is never properly and directly resolved.