In an effort to revitalize this blog as I pass through the labyrinth of college I have decided to take it in a different direction. As you know, I am a writer, and entrepreneur. Though little to no one knows on here I am in fact, an egotist of great proportions. Which is probably why I am failing at being a salesman currently, but I am getting better!

So, in short. This blog will be taking a more personal route. Also my other blog, Elf Tactics, will be taking up the mantle of my business sleuth thoughts and ideas. But with college on full now, and a new job, perhaps these things will not post as much as I’d like.

Alas, it seems the more busier I’ve become, the more I do.

Isn’t that funny?

Without further ado, let me present a personal essay with my tragedian writer’s flare on what I think true power is. Enjoy! I know you will, because I will see all those delicious comments:

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The world opened today. Full of sound and hysteria. Like a druggie popping a pill. One last down the hatch before the end. Yes, he’ll be laughing hysterically but as the sound crescendos, well, he will drown in his own works.

I’ve come to the conclusion today none of us will make it. Life is a kind of heartless mistress. She will take you and rape you for all your worth. She will puke out her wretchedness and destroy everything you’ve worked for.

There are ways around it. You can rise to power. The concepts of power are all wrong though. Most people think that ultimate power is having humanity forcefully at your beck and call. To gain it people believe they must have armies. Yes, weapons, bombs, airplanes and jets, swords and lances and napalm for burning the infidels. No one realizes.

No one sees it. Power, true power, is not one of violence. No.

True power is one of peace.

Power is not gained through hate, but rather love.

People think love is a good thing, and it can be, but it is ultimately the most powerful tool to conquer someone with. You can take a group of people, ball and chain them to work for you. Out-power them with twenty versus their ten. Eventually those ten will fight back, it may take a while; but when they do, it forces you to fight.

Suddenly all ten of them die, maybe two of them live broken and cowardly. You lost three loyal men. Three of the twenty who would had died for you, well, that is in a perfect world where soldiers are perfectly loyal. What power do you really have left? You fought so hard to control ten people against their will. You lost three good men to gain control over two. Eleven bodies lay at your feet.

Their blood coagulating with your failure. Let us take the same example:

You have a group of twenty people, you want to control a group of ten people. You go in there with peace in your heart. Preach selflessness, the highest of virtues. Love them indiscriminately as you love your own men. Give them guidance, but in a humble way, speak wisdom nothings. Talk of righteousness, but without force, talk of how men should give unto men. Make them selfless, or try to become selfless, and the guilt that it will build will make them into your willful slaves. The results?

You took 20 of your men and conquered 10 men. Casualties? Zero.

What are the mechanics of this? How can being selfless be a tool to weaken one’s self to be controlled by others? Well, it is quite simple. Humans, by their very nature, cannot be selfless. Everything we do is selfish, even the selfless acts we do out of selfish emotions of feeling better or feeling superior to others around us. It therefore rests that becoming selfless is an unattainable task. Which will make the person feel guilty.

If the soon-to-be conqueror preaches selflessness as the highest virtue of men, and harnesses his dialogue with the ten men to make them believe him, they will fall. Since the men cannot reach this task that they now believe to be the ultimate form of achievement, they have come to question themselves. They strive for nothing more than to serve, not lead. No one ever does anything for themselves anymore. Rather they buy the milk for their neighbors who is buying the milk for their neighbors who is buying the milk for their neighbors and so on. As time goes they will come to see the conqueror as a vassal of wisdom.

This vassal now has the power to control. Yes the control is very subtle, but this is true power. These ten men would gladly die now for this one conqueror. With thirty men full of false virtue, full of his brainwashing, they can go and conquer twenty more men. And over time it will increase exponentially.

Yes, this is true power. For a conqueror who can do and achieve this has become the lord of no lands but the king of souls.

And who is more powerful dare I say? The lands with their rock and soil and oceans, or the arms that wield them?

Indeed, the lord of lands is a sad ruler in comparison with a king of souls.

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Hope you enjoyed it. I find myself enjoying the thought of becoming an avid essayist!

-Greg the Writer