On a biological level, me and you and Putin share nearly 100% of our DNA.
We have created a social system that divides us into such different experiences that we fool ourselves into believing that we are actually different. But we aren’t.
We are all the same species. Which means we all have the capacity to be a murderous dictator. I know you don’t want to face it; nobody does. But there’s just no biological reason why a handful of our species would be capable of this and the rest of us aren’t. We are all the same species. Which means we all have the capacity to be a murderous dictator.
I know you don’t want to face it; nobody does. But I don’t think we can fix abuse of power until we can squarely face all of it, from domestic violence to child abuse to sexual harassment to corruption to colonialism and slavery (which is still a huge thing BTW) to Mr. Mass Murderer of the Month. This is all happening all the time. Human beings just like you and me are behind all of it. Which means abuse of power is a universal human problem that we treat as a problem of “abnormal” individuals.
Maybe we don’t make systems that prevent having too much power because we all want the opportunity to have too much power ourselves. I’m not saying it’s a conscious decision. But given the untold amount of human suffering that is caused simply because power is allowed to accumulate is staggering. It seems like a rather large blind spot.
