Politics

Great Mencken quote in article about why some men want to rule others.

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false- face for the urge to rule it."

No kidding.

"The question of whether people are to control their own lives, energies, and resources for their own ends, or whether they are to be subservient to the interests of those who want to forcibly control others, has been with us from our beginnings. The impulse to advance one’s interests by controlling others can probably be traced to our earliest so-called “primitive” ancestors. While male tribe members were off hunting for a gazelle, one bright young man might have figured out a less burdensome way of being provided for. “Why should I spend so much of my energy chasing a bunch of wild animals around in the hot sun, especially when the other guys are better hunters than I?,” he reasons. He then concocts the following scheme and presents it to his fellow tribesmen. “I am in contact with the gods who control the world in which we live. They can inform me of how best to capture gazelles, how to protect our tribe from the deadly ‘Nine Bows’ from across the river, and how to  organize our tribe for our betterment. I can pass this information on to you, and if you obey what I tell you, our lives will be better.” In such primordial ways was politics invented, allowing the few to control the many. " 

I think it's more fundamental than that. I think families and clans provided for their elders - the wise men and women of the tribe - out of family dynamic. The institutionalized theft of politicians is based on exploitation of that familial instinct. That's why it's so hard to defeat an incumbent.