Unfulfilled Wants Beget Lust For Power
Posted by Raunak Mahajan on September 7, 2012
“Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.”
– Bertrand Russell in “The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine” (1938).
What effect does suppression and control have on a form of energy that governs everything within us and without?
It would be a mistake to equate suppression with elimination. A want, desire or any other manifestation of human energy can only be temporarily restrained, it cannot be eliminated. Over time, the bottled up energy transforms its nature and eventually finds a way out in forms that are more malignant than its original existence.
A pure desire borne out of the human heart is as innocent as a new born baby. And every desire has an energy driving it, an energy which itself is divine.
However, external repression corrupts the very benign nature of this energy and the result is the birth of a desire that is evil and wicked.
doakonsult 
halsmith said
I knew a old woman once who knew Bertie (as she called him) personally.
I wish I could agree with you that all human drives are benign. But that does not appear to be the case – even for primitive societies. And we keep making the world worse, not better.
Raunak said
thanks for your comments…really appreciate it.
I know what you mean and I guess its the conditioning of the society that makes some drives harmful.
I think a lot of people have just stopped thinking. Maybe its just that hectic work schedules don’t leave people with enough time or energy to think.
pauladkin said
The liberal-democratiic or capitalist system encourages desire, it doesn’t repress it. But because that encouragement catapults society to dangerous immoral and unethical, nihilistic territory, most capitalist societies use religion to anchor its nihilism in some moral concrete. So Western societies tend to be bicephalous in terms of desire. Repressing desires at the same time that it cries out for us to enjoy them. Our modern super-ego says Enjoy! And guilt is felt when it doesn’t. Our conservative super-ego says Don’t enjoy! And we guilty when we do. The result is a logical confusion and a feeling that society has no values any more.
Raunak said
thank you so much for sharing such a well thought out view.I truly believe in the vital role that religion plays in balancing our lives. But sometimes, religious authorities transcend the role they must play and this is when resentment arises.
In Plato’s utopia, religion was a must to prevent people from rising up against the system, making them believe that the type of governance they lived with was the word of God.
Offthebeatenpath said
I think we share the same taste. Bertrand Russel is one of my favorites though I have never read his work outside of logic and math. I know he is an amazing writer through friends. His logic, though, is something I am familiar. We were born on the same day so I always felt a natural affinity with his soul. He was definitely a pioneer in thought. Great article!
Raunak said
thanks for sharing your wonderful thoughts 🙂 guess what? I was born a day after you both in India….in the morning, so it would mean it was still 18th May in most parts of the U.S!
julienmatei said
Great post! Tks!
Raunak said
thanks! glad you liked it 🙂
julienmatei said
stringently written 😉
Raunak said
there’s one thing I’d like to add to this post. No creation is evil. None. Evil has its roots in good.
julienmatei said
This is a hard one to ponder on…but, that´s for sure, there is no Evil beyond duality
julienmatei said
What I am saying here is that Evil is a very cunning business, hardly to dismiss in few words…
Raunak said
absolutely! Every epic that I have come across delves more into the good. Any epic that examines more evil?
julienmatei said
You may want to read this:
http://julienmatei.com/2012/09/18/what-is-living-a-dialogue-between-me-and-richard/