I just read a thread by what seemed to be an idealistic young man who wanted to see the world a better place. I think of myself as a kind hearted, compassionate, fair minded man but I wonder what I would become if I had no one to answer to and absolute power. Even more so than North Korean president as the entire world would be under me.
At 64 years old I have had periods in my life when I had more control over things and people than what I normaly had, looking back I can see that I changed durring those periods and not always in ways I was proud of. It seemed the “vision” I had for the company usually took as much president as I was legaly able to give it. I know this can’t be compared to absolute power even remotely but enough to make a point to myself that I may not be who I think I am all the time.
I don’t believe any wise man no matter how he was appointed or given authority could be trusted with this kind of power. I can imagine myself getting “drunk” with power. ( we have chemicals in us that will make us drunk" Would I just kill off all the prisoners, then the geniticaly weak, on and on?
What would you do?
I’ve sometimes daydreamed about what I’d do if I were Emperor of the world. One of the first things I noticed is that one’s hypothetical rise to power makes an enormous difference. If it were the entire world suddenly united as one nation under my rule, with nobody trying to usurp my power, things would be fairly straightforward. Assemble a cabinet of ministers to coordinate the transition to a global nation, then make broad-brush decisions whose details are delegated to subordinates. Improve education and healthcare in underdeveloped regions. Establish globally-coordinated environmental management. Find a way to disband the militaries inherited from the now-former nations without causing too many economic shocks. Find out how low taxes actually have to be if one is to foster a healthy market economy in a single jurisdiction where the fat cats can’t use their money to skew elections.
Of course, this seems like a pipe dream because it is. Real emperors/kings/dictators seem to spend most of their energy on staying in power, rather than pursuing the vision they have for their realm. They need expensive armies to defeat threats from without, and oppression to defeat threats from within. These are enormous drags on prosperity, and the desire to hang onto power in the face of many people trying to take it away breeds paranoia. This paranoia, I think, is the cause of autocrats becoming drunk with power. In such a more realistic scenario, I imagine I would almost certainly end up as an unsuccessful tyrant who is overthrown in short order, if only because I don’t have the skill set necessary to be a (relatively) successful tyrant.
“Elections” ? The future global empire of Bryan will not understand this word.
I would be kind and tolerant 99% of the time, and covertly sponsor acts of nonviolent antisocial destructiveness the other 1%, just to remind everyone to keep an eye on their baser natures.
Galadriel’s vision of herself with the One Ring ain’t got nothing on me with Absolute Power.
I would just let everything be as it is. Current governments and regimes would be free to continue governing their people as they see fit.
The only difference would be once a year I would single out a dozen or so people I deem to be, in one way or another, detrimental to society as a whole and have them publicly killed, in the most horrific manner I can possibly imagine at the time, under a large banner that simply read: BEHAVE.
Eeeeh, public executions maybe. One per year, I’d do. Torture killers or mass shooters, those ineligible for the insanity plea. Something civilized but graphic, like firing squad.
The tableaux of antisocial behavior I alluded to earlier would be staged by paid actors and would involve highly dramatic performances of unconscionable behavior, but stop short of physical harm or the portrayal thereof. Kittens would be involved; nobody but a total sociopath doesn’t like kittens, and it might be a convenient means of identifying such individuals.
I can see the LOLcat resistance forming now.
I often fantasize about having power and authority, but I think it’s necessary to define just what authorities I have and how I came about having them. If I’m pronounced Beardpig Pantocrator tomorrow, well, who pronounced me, and how much do they believe in me?
If I just had irresistible telepathic power, and could simply compel anyone to do my will via mind control, then I would establish a thearchy, have a massive palace-temple built in my honor, and divide the world up into satrapies, each to be ruled over by someone I had telepathically ‘cleansed’ into perfect obedience to me. Over time, as the number of people who had come under my direct power increased, I would expand their reach and control over society.
In short, I’d be Vivec.
I’d have a prime minister who would do all the leg work to make sure that ran a just society. My principle goal would be to eliminate the income tax personal and corporate and tax all fossil fuels according to btu potential both domestic and imported right at the source whether at the extraction site or at the border for simple monitoring.
Everyone would get a guaranteed income from the government to provide for the basic neccessities and thus eliminate all social programs.
But how would you ensure that your followers enter ever-more-deeply into the profound enlightenment of the divine dreamworld?
OP, if it was going to be just You or Me to rule the world, first thing I’d do is kill You.
Then I would gather together about a thousand hot chicks and take a year “sabbatical”.
If that worked out well, I’d just go with repeating it.
The biggest problem I can see is confirmation bias. When a government does something I disapprove of, and the results turn out to be good (in my perception), I am willing to say that they were right to do this thing I opposed. If I’m in charge, everything will be done my way; even if it works, I’ll have no reason to consider whether something else would have worked better.
This seems to be more of a poll than a debate.
Off to IMHO.
If I was God-Emperor of Earth, I would become the most hated individual in human history. So…pass. Genocide gets you talked about.
I would definitely chuck aside any ideas of creating any kind of universal-justice utopia. As long as society is made up of humans, it will be unjust and dysfunctional; we can’t overcome our primate-on-the-savannah inherent cognitive biases. We were never meant to be civilized, and that’s why we are doing such a shitty job of it. Therefore:
I would parcel out my power, doling it out carefully so that there was a series of interlocking relationships and the continued prosperity of all my beneficiaries was utterly contingent on my continued well-being. I would then retire to a beautiful, isolated tropical island with 1000 or so of the world’s most beautiful women, a staff of gourmet chefs, and of course a monthly shipload of beer delivered directly to the Imperial Beer Fountain.
Hmmm… First four decisions : general cease-fire everywhere, suspension of death sentences pending further decisions, dismantling of all mass destruction weapons, written confession to me from all world leaders about what they have done secretly (or publicly, for that matter, in dictatures) and appropriate sackings.
Then the general issue : what government for a planet? It would have to be something federal, not only to respect cultural differences and preferences but also because if everything is done everywhere in the same way, innovations or changes would become difficult (for instance without the examples of the very different healthcare systems in other countries, the debate about it in the USA would go nowhere. About most topics, people would say : fine idea, but it would never work in reality)
So, how much power to give to the “world government”, what issues should be left as prerogatives of national governments, etc…? The central government should have enough teeth to enforce at least basic principles (and what should be those basic principles?) and prevent wars, but not enough to be likely to turn into a tyranny. I mean, my tyranny would obviously be fine, but the system should be able to outlive me. When I think of it, I would have to resign after some time to see if the system works, while keeping the option to step back in if it collapses.
There would be large wealth transfers from rich to poor countries. And massive immediate emergency aid to adress the most urgent issues. An ultimate goal would be complete freedom of residence, but not immediatly in order to avoid mass migrations.
When I think of it, should I stay anonymous or not? On the one hand, I’d rather be able to have a drink without everybody knowing me and pestering me, but on the other hand, in our day and age, a faceless dictator would be just weird.
Oh, and I would move around. My capital would be Beijing for some months, then New-Delhi, etc…so that I could get a grasp of various countries (and visit the world. It’s not like I’m not going to give myself some vacation time).
I’m not cut out for leadership. I’m also certain that I would be *vastly *irresponsible with access to that much money and power. I’m pretty financially responsible with money now, but only because I *have *to be; if I didn’t have to be, I would buy so much unnecessary crap because I am such a horrid hedonist at heart. In short order, I would likely become dependent on a wide variety of psychotropic drugs and play video games all day, while hoping the officials I chose could run the place without requiring too much of me.
I’d probably end up getting ousted and/or slaughtered in an easy internal takeover within a year of taking office.