Oh, nonono! Control is just the most effective and mass-deployed tool, not the end! Completely agree with that aspect!

And agreed as well in that the pyramid of control should be flipped, with the people who actually generate value (i.e. the workers) at the top! It would make sense not only from an equity standpoint, but in terms of expertise as well! I find practical experience with a process is an absolute must for anyone who is tasked with managing said process, if we desire efficient (and actually useful…) management!

The workers should be dictating how things work, because they’re the ones actually working the things. That sounds a lot more confusing than it is in my head=))

I understand and agree with that, but that’s exactly my point, that control is a means to an end, but control needs to be sustained and perfected over time, and it is also necessary when a handful of psychotic apes are making their profits off of other 8.2 billion psychotic apes.

Yes, the ultimate goal is money. Yes, control is a means to an end. But you also have to take into consideration the way we’ve structured things to work so far, how we’ve built society, basically. It’s layers upon layers of influence and control, even down to basic human interactions most of the time. I’m not saying non-transactional interactions are impossible, but in a transactional system, transactional interactions are favoured. And, yes, the system itself is transactional because it is focused and built around the central and supreme value (in its conception, not objectively, to note) - money.

We have built a system of control centered around money, is my point. Because that was the most effective way to ensure stability of profit. And it is much easier and much stabler to ensure the (upward) flow of money if one controls/influences/manipulates those who actually generate the money.

Well, what I was saying is that power is intrinsic to money, any way you cut it. Whether it be through using power to acquire money, or using money as a power in itself - money can make anything move, if that’s not power, then what is?

As for the aspect of control, yes, those outdated methods were ineffective, but they’ve had plenty of time to perfect their expression of control since then. I mean, if the people in power owning the means of distributing information and facilitating communication between people isn’t control, then what is?

Said it yourself, “power [is a] means to acquire more money.” And the way society has been structured means we, the workers and consumers, are the product - we are the money (arguably always have been).

As such, it honestly makes sense to establish more and more layers of control, not only as a means of reinforcing and securing their positions (it’s harder to fight against Fascism if you can’t even call it Fascism, for instance), but also to wrangle the cattle, as it were.

I mean, if you’d be making your money off of rearing cows, you wouldn’t want them rebelling in any way. Complicates the road to profit.

I agree with you on everything except one aspect: money is power and control in this system. Abstract authority is meaningless and most of those who seem to have only this are pieces to be moved when appropriate, but the moving is done with money. That’s where the real power is nowadays.

As it were, money can’t buy happiness, but it sure can make it a lot easier to compensate for the sadness.