When David Davis said to Boris Johnson, ‘In the name of God, go,’ I think he was articulating what many of us were thinking. Regardless of the outcome of the civil service investigation, it seems hard to see how Boris can survive the partygate scandal. Even if he is found not to have broken any laws, hearing a Prime Minister say that he didn’t know that a garden full of people drinking wine and eating cheese was as a party, makes him seem so absurd that it would be grounds on its own to consider him unfit for his job.
What surprises me is that he is fighting so hard to stay in post. Life for Boris cannot be much fun at the moment and, if he survives this scandal, ahead of him he has years of fighting to rebuild a reputation. Knowing that his earning potential is probably higher outside of politics, you would think he would look at the situation objectively and just cut his losses. But he doesn’t, and he won’t. Very few people in his position seem to.
It isn’t just Boris who clings to power - very few powerful people seem to go gracefully. Whilst this is perhaps understandable in tyrants and dictators for whom power is absolute and the loss of power is likely to represent a threat to their lives, it is equally true for most politicians in democracies. Look at Joe Biden fighting tooth and nail to be president at a time when, by all rights, he should be enjoying his twilight years on the golf course. Or Trump of course. But even mild mannered Theresa May grizzled on for many torturous months after the writing was clearly on the wall.
Although we all know the saying ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’, I had always assumed that, in actual fact, there is a certain type of personality that seeks these positions of power, a personality type that is ripe to be corrupted by power, and has a pre-existing craving to be in charge.
But it seems that it is power itself that changes people’s psychology. Megalomaniacs are created, not born.
Power is addictive in the true sense of the world. It activates the same neural ‘reward’ circuits via the neurotransmitter dopamine as addictive drugs. The high of power is as much a neuro-chemical product as any other emotion and so, if power is withdrawn, people experience a genuine craving in the same way as an addict experiencing withdrawal.
And just like drug or alcohol addiction, power addiction changes a person’s personality. Those in power have been shown to have a heightened sense of uniqueness, to pay less attention to the emotions of others and to engage more in socially unacceptable behaviours. These personality changes seem to be playing out before our eyes in Boris.
So, like many before him, he won’t go without a protracted and undignified fight. And he won’t go until there is simply no other option. He is an addict and he will need help to give up his addiction.
References
https://theconversation.com/the-neurochemistry-of-power-has-implications-for-political-change-23844