What Controls the world?

Most would say that clearly money is the great instigator, the driving force that controls the gears of the world. There are a select few people in this world who are ambitious and persevering enough to make the pursuit of power their life goal. The rush that comes with gaining wealth is enough to drive humans to act beyond reason in their quest for supremacy, and what else but money can help this quest be attained. These select few megalomaniacs have used this tool to dominate and rule the world since the beginning of time; From Alexander the great conquering most of the known world to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs taking over the technology race. The era progresses and the battlefield changes, but the root reasons stay the same. With this power they subdued the masses and kept them in check, whether it was by the lash of the whip or by virtue of brainwashing.

But people are certainly not sheep; though sometimes do follow charismatic shepherds without question. There needs to be a medium of control, some ideology to keep the masses from revolting and feeling dominated; the veil behind the leash so they say. The first medium to do so was probably theism. The conjuring and worship of a God or Gods has been used to instil fear in the hearts of the common populace since the beginning of time. The Celtics, for example, were a courageous race that feared almost nothing; their greatest dread was that the sky would fall on their heads. An idea that we would openly mock nowadays, but I would consider not too farfetched compared to some of our outlandish customs today. The ancient Greeks are another classic example. Their vast mythology is crammed full with tales of some mortal or the other upsetting one of the Gods and incurring their wrath upon their poor souls. No doubt these tales were based on some of the real fears that existed then, making sure the Gods were worshiped and honoured accordingly, but mostly devised by the rulers of the time to subjugate the masses.

The next medium to come was religion. As paganism was slowly rooted out and converted by missionaries, people became united with a common faith. With religion came a way of life, guidelines on what was right and wrong, how to pray for miracles, and inevitably how to reach heaven. Driven by the need for something to believe in and a fear of the afterlife, religion swept through the lands like wildfire and controlled the masses in ways unprecedented. Of course money had to play a part in it, as it does in everything else. Soon, religion was used as a medium for the power struggle, breeding holy wars, witch hunts, and sins that could be forgiven for the right price.

At the turn of the 21^st century, the world globalized itself with the technology boom and became more informed, leaving religion to spread itself thin. More and more people turn away from the old ways and find solace in other beliefs more suited to the capitalist driven societies we have today. And so the immortal megalomaniacs look for other means to continue their reign of domination. They found these in law, politics, banking, and other modern-day giants. At the centre of these giants, is as always, money.

The opposed view is not that much more heartening to think about. It involves the individual human, the single component of the mass, a tiny puzzle-piece of the world-jigsaw, which didn’t just enter planet earth ready with an economy and banks in every corner. Mankind got the lucky draw and evolved to become the smartest of all animals, (although dolphins might have a say in this). Though full of intelligence, possessing the know how to build entire cities, humans are still of flesh and blood, animals to the core, without exception. This core is run by basic instincts, necessary for survival, and one of the basest of these instincts is the drive for sex. We can see this in the design of the human body, tailor made for the gathering of food, the survival of hardships, and for breeding to ensure their legacy and the legacy of the human race continues on.

If we didn’t have this drive to constantly find a suitable partner to procreate with, then the human race would have died out a long time ago. Therefore it is necessary by natural design that the drive for sex stay strong, no matter how civilized and controlled we claim to be in the modern age. Behind all our fashionable clothes, our social norms and laws, our ideologies, lies an animal with its basic instincts suppressed, where they occasionally emerge in alternative forms. In the past, when a man desired a woman, he would simply bash her over the head with his club and take her back to his cave (metaphorically speaking). Years later, we have managed to twist our mating rituals and sexual education into an intricately complex web of rules and norms that serve to bewilder us more rather than help us understand and express our feelings of desire as we grow. Unravelling this web is a full time job in itself and can affect many major decisions an individual makes in their lifetime, from getting married to moving countries.

I can hypothesise that, short of the basic necessities of food and shelter, the desire for sex is the direct or indirect effect of every cause, the consequence of every action, the decider for every decision. Money is craved, that I consent to, but in my theory only because wealth can ultimately lead to sex. If you make a hypothetical offer to a typical man to choose between one night of sex with a beautiful woman and a bar of gold, nine times out of ten he would choose the gold. If you ask the same man whether he would be willing to forever relinquish any form of sex for a hundred bars of gold, nine times out of ten he would choose not to. In the overall view of things, man plainly needs sex more than money. Ask a criminal released from jail, a soldier back from war, or a monk who revoked his vow of celibacy.

In conclusion, I can see there is a connection between the two opposing views, one that places money and sex in a hierarchy, depending on the point of view. The Power-hungry view would place money above sex, stating that the ambition for wealth and power rules the world. The Animalistic view would place sex above money, because it drives people’s basic instincts and ultimately governs most of our actions. Either view seems plausible depending on how we define the world. If it’s seen as a single whole made of countries and nations, then money logically runs its gears. But if it’s seen as the sum of the smallest parts, consisting of individuals with feelings and instincts, then the drive for sex clearly dominates our lives. Either way, It’s best not to lose too much sleep on this age old debate. It leaves a dryly pessimistic outlook on life and we have better things to do than ponder on it all day long; such as earn some money and flirt with that cute girl/guy across the bar.