There’s a Dutch saying that translates like: a sparrow is a bird but a bird is not a sparrow. I was reminded of that saying when I read the following: “it’s easier to turn power into money than it is to turn money into power” (Axios Markets, #1). The best example might be former Chinese tech billionaires (eg, Nikkei)
Money is 1 of the 3 belief systems in the Power domain of the 7 Belief systems (ie, 2016 version and 2019 update). The other 2 are Politics and Religion (2016), and/or Data-Info and Technology (2019). Money performs best when it supports the winner: Politics (EU, USA) and/or Religion (Arab countries).
The (private) combination of Money, Data-Info and Technology has created negative emotions within (public) governments, including suspicion about the true aims of that (private) power. In China, it has resulted in a drive for common prosperity also known as common poverty (eg, Bloomberg-2022).
Late last month, it was reported – and subsequently denied – that the U.S. government wants to perform a national security review on the growing business empire of an eccentric and erratic tech billionaire (eg, Bloomberg, Guardian, Reuters). Clearly, public Power does not like private competition.
For some time, I’ve been wondering whether my 2019 update needs an overhaul; especially following the subsequent Chinese political crack down of its Big Tech sector (eg, Axios, Bloomberg, Wired).
Perhaps, this blog could also have been named as The Return of Politics:
My diagram above fits well with my 2018 blog: Technology, the new Religion.
Moreover, this 2022 diagram reveals my 2019 flaw: the apparent contradiction between Data-Info and Technology. It did not and does not exist.
My conclusion – by using a quote from the novel 1984 by George Orwell (1903-1950): “We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end.”
Another quote by Frederick Douglass (1817/18-1895), an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman:
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
[Money] Can’t Buy Me Love (1964) by the Beatles
band, lyrics, video, Wiki-band, Wiki-song
I don’t care too much for money
Money can’t buy me love
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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