power

an effective illusion - if somebody seems to have power, we naturally tend to respect (not necessarily honour) it.
is it our survival instinct, out of greed (share of likely spoils), or just mental laziness (accepting what others seem to have already decided)? something else? likely a combination of several.


background: knighthood (the facebook game) made me reflect on this. since i no longer play, i thought i'd offer the stores of various weapons and gold my minions have produced on autopilot to the player that i thought was the most worthy. he came back with appreciation and a promise to distribute them to lower-ranked players to help them along.

i recognized his power by (a) his power score but mostly (b) the number of people actively playing with him (he is the founder of a successful league or alliance or something). he was acting as an escrow or something in a trade i was conducting, and that's when he earned my trust (what little was needed for me to want to offer him my redundant riches).

this isn't democracy - this is benevolent monarchy, but in a fantasy world that you can take your chances in and not lose anything if things go wrong. yet the social interaction, honour and recognition between players is something that the current political "democratic" system fails to offer - or at least seems to fail to offer and by extension isn't in a position to offer it. and so our governments are relegated to the back burner of social conscience, to a role of dealing with the things that have to be done but without significant meaning to the average person, and subject to control by parties that seek opportunities for financial gain (if not for them, then for the people that supported them). a competition of kingdoms, so to speak, where the winner is decided not on the battlefield but in elections. the fact that elections are now scheduled regularly just makes them more mechanistic and dull. one ray of hope survives, that the canadian people have insisted once more to maintain their involvement and hold on to the strings of power by denying yet again a majority government.