Anyone who think that true power consists of having lots of money, or being born in to the right family or having access to loads of information is an idiot. The old saying goes "talent hits a target that noone else can hit - genius hits a target that noone else can see." And looking around the world, all I really ever see are targets. Pressure points, emotional biases and subconcious cues that other people don't admit to and can't even recognize because of their own attachments to them - attachments which I have none of. Most people live their lives speeding towards cliffs - cliffs which they can't see until its too late.
Money is, as House of Cards so eloquently stated, is the McMansion in Sarasota that is falling apart after ten years.
Being born in to the right family? Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations. The majority of the idiots that are born in to money don't know how to be productive with it, and end up wasting it on frivolous bullshit. People like that don't deserve the blessings which have been afforded to them, and I take pleasure in seeing the logical extensions of their proclivities and behaviors before they do. Being able to see things about them that they don't - and couldn't, given the illusions that they are so attached to.
And anyone can have access to any amount of information. If you know the right places to look, you can get access to peoples social security numbers, medical records and genetic profiles, shopping habits and work histories, personal networks.
Power is being able to make someone go along with something that they know is a lie. Great power comes from being able to make someone go along with a lie, while convincing them that it's the truth.
My first taste of true power came early on. In high school, I was a bit of a dork. I was one of the dorks who dressed in suits to go to school - everywhere else as well, actually. The neatness, the organization of a good presentation always appealed to me. Plus people treat you differently - with more deference and respect - when you present yourself in such a light. Most people anyways. I remember the day I went to see a pre screening of a movie. The movie was irrelevant, and I can't quite remember what it was anyways. The importance of the date came before the movie. Dressed in my typical tweed jacket, slacks and glasses, I felt like a well put together individual.
As I mentioned, people usually gave me deference. A well dressed white male, who acts with confidence, can pretty much get away with anything short of a felony (and even then there's leeway). That's why I was surprised when I heard snickering coming from the row behind me. I looked over to see three, how would you say, "urban youth," (i.e. niggers) pointing at me and laughing to each other. They were making reference to the way I dressed, as opposed to their own more "street" appropriate attire.
That's the first time that I first felt it. Looking at those idiots, I knew the paths their lives would take. My interest in demographics and statistics had informed me earlier on about the academic links between race, single parent homes, income, drug use, incarceration and relevant other factors. It all just... gestated at that moment. It was the difference between being taught and learning - some things can be taught, but other things simply must be learned through experience, and it hit me like a pile of bricks.
I could see the forces that shaped these peoples lives - the intonations of their speech, the clothes they wore and what it said about their values and the culture they existed as part of, the way they mocked me for what I wore, and what that said about their own insecurities, fears and desires. I knew with a high degree of certainty then that they would live their lives out as low income, welfare tit sucking leeches - progressing minimally, academically, being held down by what they were born in to and surrounded by, like a crab being held back from escaping a pot by other crabs.
I could see the female in the group getting pregnant as a teen, then going through a cycle of further pregnancies from different men who wouldn't commit to her. I could see her never marrying, and constantly striving for someone who would love her, but whom she wouldn't find because the people who she associated with lacked personal responsibility and long term perspective. I saw the males of the party working minimum wage jobs and probably going to prison at some point. I could see their children, and childrens children being dragged down by forces which they had no control over, which they had been born in to, and would undoubtedly change if they could.
And I laughed. In that split second of everything coming together, seeing their futures and knowing it, knowing them and how the limits of their own perceptions would shape their lives to come, it gave me a power over them. Knowing that I would be better off, and that they would stagnate and that generations of their family would stagnate in shit gave me a great satisfaction. Being able to look back upon the shit tier people from my youth, who bullied others and who were wastes of skin, seeing the logical progression of their poor values and attitudes and what it led them to, also gives me great pleasure.
That's when I decided to use this understanding to the best of my ability. The way other people talk about synesthesia, being able to hear music in shapes and colors, I was able to do with emotions and predilections. My ability to program and with statistics was a useful skill, which I developed and applied to the analysis of mass markets. I've worked in "big data" for some time now, analyzing advertising techniques for google and facebook. I worked on Obama's 2008 campaign, analyzing public questionnaires and demographic data, personalizing messages to suit the sheeple. I disdain Obama's policies, but I admire the man - he has no actual principles, and is willing to allow public desire shape his goals and message. Most people don't realize that we targeted and sent out different emails and tv ads so granularly, but we would hit individual counties, town and sometimes even households with different messages, with minor tweaking - a different focus here, a slightly different word there. And always with an heir of vagueness that gave the sense of there being on the verge of an almost limitless possibility (tests showed that a simple catch phrase work best, and that there was a particular interest in "hope and change," which is what we chose to emphasize), which we were the only ones that it could achieved by.
My work now consists primarily one thing: creating an anxiety in someone which is relievable only by purchase. I work for a major multinational conglomerate as the head of their consumer analytics department. You probably have a couple dozen products in your home which my company produced. Probably which my work influenced you to buy. Products which there is minimal reason to purchase over our competitors. And they're products which make you smile.
That's the big lie. Making people think that they want things, and then making them spend pieces of their waking life, spent working, to buy our products. And in their perception, it does make them happier. And that gives me power. And that makes me happy.