'MONEY IS POWER' - true or false?

[Guest]

Discuss.

As much as it's easy to say that it's true because without it you will quickly die out, I'd like to hear some arguments for the contrary please, especially with the following notions that seem to exist in this world:

'Knowledge and intelligence is power'
'Looks and sex appeal is power'
'Physical strength is power'
'Your own will is power'
'Violence is power'
'Faith is power'

[Zombie Sheep]

.

[hr]

This post may be intended in jest and should be read as such. Any queries relating to the seriousness of it should be addressed to the author. The author requests that readers DO NOT follow the advice or requests in this post. This statement is retrospective with regards to all previous sinner posts.

http://www.zombiesheep.name

[Bitterandtwisted]

Being able to crush those who oppose you is power. Money is one way of achieving this.

[hr]

Life is as tedious as a twice told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

[flarewearer]

How many rich people are powerful?
How many poor people are powerful?

QED

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[the racing tortoise]

power is a peculiar thing, It is transient and non transferrable. You never have permenant power, you can always lose it at the blink of an eye, but more important is that the power to kill millions of people does not atomatically give you the power to find someone specific, and vice versa. Power can be won in many ways as the original poster said but not all powers can be won by every method. You cannot become president of the US by money alone, you need at least a tad of charisma. You also cannot buy the power to make someone like/love you. Thankfully this means some slut who gets sleeps her way to the top is unlikely to end up in charge of the nuclear button.
Most power however does have a price that can be paid in $$.

[hr]

minesweeper times:
Beginner: 3
Intermediate: 34
Expert: 172

A wasted life.

[Steveo]

'Power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.'
Margaret Thatcher

[Allan]

Quoting flarewearer from 15:00, 25th Jul 2005
How many rich people are powerful?
How many poor people are powerful?

QED

[hr]

But is power a result of being rich or is being rich a result of being powerful

[Colin]

Quoting Allan from 17:23, 25th Jul 2005

But is power a result of being rich or is being rich a result of being powerful

It is a circle of increasing power and wealth. One leads to the other. E.g. the US presidency.

As for where you start, thats a sort of chicken and egg thing. Although you could just start by having a rich and powerful dad. Again, a certain example springs to mind.

[Colin]

Although, with reference to W, maybe the thread should be 'monkey is power'.

[Ian McFarlane]

Niall Ferguson's 'What is Power?' essay is well worth a read.

[Duggeh]

What I need is power.
And what is power? Money! Therefore what i need is money!
But I have no money and power equals money and I'm powerless to get money to get power.

Got an aspirin?


-The Nomad, Beau Peep.

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[Jesser]

gordon browns in control of loads of money and he cant get the power hes after, maybe power is directly proportional to the width of a cheesy grin

[raheli]

Power, at least the kind I desire, is the ability to make anyone who hurts you really fucking sorry.

So basically power is violence or social viciousness, depending on the nature of the offence.

Men who wonder why women can be so bitchy, take note.

[Bewildered]

Real power doesn't lie in being able to force people to do what you want them to do, because if they're willing to die then there's not really a good way to force them. Real power lies in being able to make people WANT to do what you want them to do.

Cha-ching.

[Chain Mailer]

Knowledge is power, with knowledge you can emotionally and physically blackmail people (you know their dirty little secret/ you know how to disarm them in a move). Knowledge can give you power through fear (again with the dirty little secrets/ you knowing the right people)
Knowledge of peoples weaknesses (e.g. vanities, beliefs, family etc.)
One way to get knowledge is by bribing people to tell you information, therefore money can lead to power but is not the ultimate factor of it

[hr]

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious

[flarewearer]

Quoting chain mailer from 12:53, 26th Jul 2005
Knowledge is power, with knowledge you can emotionally and physically blackmail people (you know their dirty little secret/ you know how to disarm them in a move). Knowledge can give you power through fear (again with the dirty little secrets/ you knowing the right people)

What happens when the rich and pwoerful put out a contract on your head?

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[Prophet Tenebrae]

I'm quite Hobbesian in my views, so power as defined as the ability to achieve ones desires can be manifested in money, the means to achieve said desires.

Obviously though, this all relies on the social contract and the covenant being in place. Money is power in a civilised, monetary society. It does you fuck all when it comes to the dead walking the Earth and other societal collapse type scenarios.

So, more specifically - money is a type of power that exists within a rather specific type of framework but there are some obvious and unbreakable limits on it.

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[Chain Mailer]

What happens when the rich and pwoerful put out a contract on your head?

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image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/blackback.png[/quote]

Pfft, if all goes to plan I will be the most successful professional killer in the biz, therefore they'll come to me and I'll just kill them problem solved

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Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious

[steerpike]

Im in agreement with what Prophet Tenebrae said above - that power is thoroughly dependent on what kind of existence you're living in.

On the topic of money and power, I think Russia is the best example of these two going hand in hand. Sadly the Russian economy practically sustains itself on the comings and goings of bribes - from the small level of having to bribe your way out of being givin a parking fine, to the higher level of banks, governents, companies etc all playing off each other with money. So in Russia anyone can easily attain power for themselves through having a bit of dosh to throw around. Yes i know that that can go for a lot of other countries too, russia isnt the only corrupt state in the world today.


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Nothing is easier than to condemn the evildoer, nothing is harder than to understand him.

F.Dostoevsky