Published on: 24 Nov 04:27

Michelle Steele asks

"What are the problems with ruling the world? Who would want the job?"

Trying to get a bunch of humans from different cultures with a bunch of competing beliefs, all headed in the same direction, would be worse than herding cats.

It’d be like herding cats who are aggressive, opinionated and are capable of rage flipping tables and shooting guns… and a number of the cats hate other cats for the colour of their fur of for their gender or just for no damn reason. Also, these cats generate significant paperwork.

The problem with ruling the world is ‘people’. That’s a bold claim and a broad assertion but I stand by it.

Who would want the job? Either people who are utterly naive and think the very best of people and are determined to improve the world or power-hungry control freaks who are willing to use force to get their way.

My answer

When I was … 15, I think, I decided I wished to take over the world. So did most of my geekier friends. We actively plotted world domination. Whether we’d be working as one big Team or would turn on each other upon reaching a certain power threshold we’d conveniently refrained from discussing.

At least I refrained. Hell, it’s only just occurred to me now: maybe everyone in the Team except me throbbed with vicious backstabby shenanigans. All I know is, I didn’t witness any. It’s entirely possible the Team’s other members considered me its most expendable patsy. I doubt it. Back then we were all mooks. But if the others’ mook-acts were just an act, then all I can say is, geez, they were one hell of a good act.

We persisted in this plotting until … I would say, our early-mid-twenties. By then we’d slowly but surely grown out of “utterly naive”. By then the plotting just kind of dissolved and abandoned. Either that or this was their way of ejecting from the Team the least savvy and politically astute. Now, we’re in our mid-thirties, and merely gobsmackingly naive. Or at least I am.

Don’t get me wrong! Bullshitting like this is a huge amount of fun. I’ve got nothing against bullshitting, as long as you’re aware it’s bullshitting. I know that now, in fact I encourage and I cultivate bullshit emeritus. God, it’s fun.

But my teen self didn’t realise that, not one bit. Back then, the Team and I were quite, quite serious. God, I’m glad I’m not a teenager any more.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-problems-with-r...