Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by antoko 4855 days ago
He said this:

The world is full of greedy people who seek power over others. Whether it's an ambitious Carmen Ortiz or an up-and-coming young congressman or a mild mannered traffic cop. Each seeks to control others as a very significant portion of his/her motivation and life's goal.

That does imply that everyone who ends up in a position of government power does so in order to control other people. That's the problem when someone uses such strident language and paints with such a broad brush - its very easy to just call them out on their lack of nuance and over-generalization

3 comments

"The world is full of..." is not a totalizing phrase. "Each," refers back to this clause.

The semantics leave space for people in power to work against that power. It does not imply what you believe it does.

You seem to take issue with questioning power at all.

I read the "Each" to refer to the prior sentence. Which is <example list of objectionable and non-objectionable government roles> which I interpret to mean, all government roles. While you may read it differently - I don't believe my reading is inaccurate or unfair.
Your interpretation of the sentence is arguably valid, but its derailing the discussion.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt since I don't know if English is your first language, but I assure you that paragraph implies no such thing.
It doesn't imply that every person in those jobs or roles does so for power, but rather that those that do seek out that kind of power end up in those jobs and roles.