"The Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted in 1533, is a Renaissance masterpiece featuring two French diplomats amidst symbols of knowledge, wealth, and power. It is renowned for its detailed realism and the striking anamorphic skull.
The painting is a commentary on wealth and power.
It is easy to think that we are somehow separable from these subjects. I believe this isn’t possible. And certainly isn’t applicable to anyone with tremendous wealth.
By way of example, the physicist Bill Bryson defined life as ‘something that wants to be’. So life simply wants more life, whatever that means. Wealth and power are very very similar. Like life itself, which seeks to exist and flourish, wealth and power create a cycle of continuous pursuit.
You want more wealth when you have wealth and you want more power when you have power. Why? Because it's useful. Useful to do what exactly? I guess mainly to avoid having less power and less wealth. So it becomes this cycle where you pursue one simply for the pursuit of more of that thing. This shouldn’t be read as a critique or disagreement. This cycle is observable universal and consistent throughout history.
Behind the ambassadors in the painting, various objects symbolize this pursuit for power.
Nietzsche said ‘the truth serves life’. Whatever makes you stronger, more full of life, more full of ability, is something that is good. But there's that one caveat, the distorted skull - a stark reminder of mortality. You're going to die and quite literally all of that is gone. And what did you use that for beyond getting more, and more, and more.
This brings me to the broader implications of these pursuits. Realism in international relations teaches us that states, like individuals, seek to maximize power for self-interest. This drive is visible across all facets of power—economic, persuasive, artistic, and historical.
Every person, every state leverages their advantages to gather more power, leading to a never-ending cycle. This cycle isn't just about survival or superiority; it’s about the existential question of what truly fulfills us.
Business leaders and politicians alike face this dilemma. They may accumulate wealth and power, often at great personal cost—sacrificing privacy, health, and family time. Yet, despite these sacrifices, the inherent risks and fears of loss remain, constantly challenging their peace of mind.
So, what's the value of this relentless pursuit? What are we really achieving if we’re merely extending a life of limitations? I don't have any conclusion to this. But it's a problem I care about. A lot of people have thought about this and talked about this and written about this and studied this and nobody has a solution.
This is why I think that the things in the world that do offer a solution, while incomplete, are pretty damn good. That's why things like Family and Faith are so powerful. You have to find some purpose beyond you. But once again, I don't think that that is a solution. I think it's sidestepping it. But it's a great side step. People who are married and have a healthy family life, or have some type of well-defined system of beliefs are always happier. They're at least rooted to something rather than this relentless principle of wealth maximization which never ends.
Why do we chase endless growth when the pursuit itself becomes a competitor to the values we held at the beginning of the journey?