My Thursday night was restless due to the upcoming full moon of 16 May. My mind kept wondering about zero-sum outcomes within the Love, Knowledge & Power domains of the 7 Belief systems. The Power domain always has a zero-sum outcome: one man’s loss is another man’s gain. How about the other two?
The Love domain has various outcomes. For some, there is synergy (eg, 1+1=3 or more). Hence, some couples are stronger than the sum of their individual components. For others, Love is a losing game, a song by Amy Winehouse (1983-2011). See lyrics and video. My former marriage was a zero-sum game.
There’s something weird with Knowledge: it’s never ever zero-sum. The outcome even seems infinite.
Quite possibly, this is the reason why various scholars believe in the equation Knowledge = Power or its Latin equivalent Scientia potentia est (eg, Imam Ali, Francis Bacon, Michel Foucault).
In my view, infinite Knowledge is much more powerful than mortal Power. My observation may explain a Dutch saying: ‘ “Hou jij ze dom, hou ik ze arm,” sprak de fabrikant tot de pastoor.’ In English, this would be like: “If you keep them stupid then I will keep them poor”, said the industrialist to the pastor.
In this day and age, Beliefs or known unknowns (eg, opinions) are stronger than Knowledge, or known knowns (eg, facts).
Also see my blog (and diagram) of 31 March 2016: Why are opinions stronger than facts?
Obviously, some people are benefitting from this.
However, is it possible that the sum of Knowledge and our belief in Power must be zero? If so, Why?
My 2018 blog, Knowledge = Power and the Great Filter in civilisations (5), may have provided an explanation.
Quote 1 from 2018:
The Love, Knowledge and Power domains in the 7 Belief systems are always threatened by narcissism, ignorance and arrogance.
Quote 2 from 2018:
It’s intriguing to explain Why. It might even be Nature’s way to contain the exponential rise of an advanced intelligent species.
“You start with billions and billions of potential germination points for life, and you end up with a sum total of zero extraterrestrial civilizations that we can observe. The Great Filter must therefore be powerful enough – which is to say, the critical steps must be improbable enough – that even with many billions of rolls of the dice, one ends up with nothing: no aliens, no spacecraft, no signals, at least none that we can detect in our neck of the woods.” A 2008 quote by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom (b.1973).
The Power Of Love (1984) by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-band, Wiki-song
The power of love
A force from above
Cleaning my soul
Flame on, burn desire
Love with tongues of fire
Purge the soul
Make love your goal
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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