Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
P. Diddy Illustrates a Central Aspect of Human Nature
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs at the Beverly Hills Hotel.(Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock)
When people can’t afford the things they want, they desire more money. When people acquire limitless money, they desire the things that money can’t buy.
If you can acquire things that money can’t buy, that gives you enormous power. When people acquire power, they want more of it. And more and more. And more and more and more. And more is never enough. Jefferey Epstein understood human nature. He was in the business of buying and selling things that money can’t buy. Until it can. Which creates wealth. Until it can’t.
Human nature is not exactly good or bad. Although its insatiable appetites can lead to very bad behavior at times (as it can also sometimes lead to great achievements). The behavior of our elites seems absurd, at times. We all think to ourselves, “I would never do that.” And you wouldn’t, of course. Unless you acquired limitless money. Which you probably won’t.
But if you did, perhaps you’d understand.
But if you’re lucky, you’ll never understand. Do you really want to understand people the way Mr. Epstein did?
There is a reason that government has so rarely worked. As Mr. Tolkien reminded us, “The most improper job of any man is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.“
Clinton with Lewinsky in February 1997 (WikiMedia Commons)
Those who have an insatiable appetite for power are poorly suited to leadership positions. And that’s nearly all of us.
Our Founding Fathers understood human nature, in much the same was as Mr. Epstein did. There’s a reason they designed our Constitution the way they did. They understood that human nature is not exactly good or bad. It’s just insatiable.
It’s difficult to understand why those with limitless money, like P. Diddy Combs, or Henry VIII, or Jefferey Epstein, or John F. Kennedy, or many others do the things they do, in pursuit of that which their limitless money can’t buy. They have everything that money can buy. Why is that not enough? It makes no sense.
But really, it’s just human nature. It’s insatiable. And that’s it.
Lord help all of us.
Published in General
I thought he became just “Diddy” some time ago.
It is possible that my extensive knowledge of hip hop trivia has the occasional gap.
“More money doesn’t make you happier. I was just as happy with $40M in the bank as I am now with $60M in the bank.” (some actor)
So you probably have no recollection of when he was Puff Daddy.
I have no idea who Diddy is. And what this is referring to.
Ignorance is surely bliss.
Thusly I pray…
The link in the first paragraph is to an article about a rapper’s house getting raided for suspicion of human trafficking.
I admit, with unlimited money,I’d be tempted. There is a former Ricochet anarco libertarian I would want to target. I’d pay whatever it took to get zoning changed near his home to put in a pork rendering plant. Buy out all the homes but his. Prove my point that no zoning at all is not me being Stalin.
And I’d follow him wherever he went. Until he admitted I was right and sometimes Zoning is a good thing.
Tempted anyway.
I think you are spot on, Doc.
This reminds me of a question asked in a friendly conversation some years ago: ‘Who is happier, the man with 9 children or the man with $9 billion?’*
Answer, ‘The man with 9 children – because he knows he doesn’t want any more.’
*adjusted for inflation. At the time, it was $9 million.
It’s bad, and trends worse over time without effort.
Knowledge is power, but ignorance is surely bliss.
Take your pick. :)
Do we need power if we’re already happy?
I’ve been wondering why him? He’s no Epstein. He doesn’t have any black book. If any, he probably keep a dozen or two women divided between his various houses. He’s small fry. I figure they figure if they have to get somebody so they might as well get a nobody. (And if P Diddy were somebody they wouldn’t have raided his house.)
Knowledge is it’s own reward. I don’t think ignorance is.
That we know of. That search warrant is meant to find it.
The question is: if they do find a black book, what do they do with it? Put it in the same drawer they had Hunter’s laptop in?
It’s been 637 days since Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted. How many of her clients have been pinched?
Yeah, yeah. I know. “Ongoing investigation.” They’ll find both Judge Crater and Jimmy Hoffa first.
And just before they find Hillary’s emails, and Hunter’s shenanigans, and the details convicting Obama of involvement or at least complicity in those matters. And votes illegally cast in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
He was Puff Daddy when he was dating Jennifer Lopez?
I didn’t know who Diddy was either. Just like I didn’t know who Epstein was until after he was arrested, but before he didn’t hang himself.
As a man with 7 children, I can tell you I would have been thrilled to make it a dozen. Beyond words.
Shades of the Lost Liberty Hotel?
We know well enough that the DOJ doesn’t really have an interest in busting human trafficking. The current policy on the border is effectively the largest human trafficking operation in history.
I could swear I saw an article a few weeks ago in which Mr “Diddy” Combs was trashing Biden and borderline endorsing Trump again (he did in 2015). The article seems to have been memory holed.
While it is possible this is a legitimate investigation, with this DOJ I find it more likely that it is politically motivated than an honest attempt to curb crime. Possible he did the crime, but in that case I’m more interested in discovering who is being protected by this very public raid.
Did he donate to a republican or a pro-life group? with Garland’s DOJ, that will get you are raid.
How many of those doing the investigation would find their own names in that black book?
Yes, exactly
I get more cynical.
Corporate media and Hollywood turned a blind eye to Harvey Weinstein for decades.
They only turned on him when it fit their agenda.
It has always struck me that ambition and intelligence occur in inverse proportion to each other. This, in my experience, was demonstrated by a string of principals and vice principals who ran the schools in which I worked over my long career. You could see them in their embryonic stages as young teachers who attempted to draw attention to themselves in faculty meetings by asking questions when everyone else just wanted the damned thing to end so that they could go home.
Related:
Applies to engineering design meetings as well. I forgot whose “law” it is, but it is phrased as “In a meeting, the time spent on a given subject is inversely proportional to the subject’s importance.”
7 is a good start. Your wife has more than Leah, if I’m not mistaken.