Experience of cruelty and unfriendliness may operate in either direction: with those who are easily frightened it produces the wish to escape observation, while bolder spirits are stimulated to seek positions in which they can inflict cruelties rather than suffer them.
Source： Bertrand Russell: Power, 1938.
More info.：https://russell-j.com/beginner/POWER02_120.HTM
a brief comment
Everyone desires to live in safety and security. Such safety and security include not only risks to life, such as natural disasters, traffic accidents, hazardous working conditions, and medical errors, but also economic stability and peace of mind. Generally speaking, the wealthy are in a position that allows them to be relatively insulated from such risks compared to those living in poverty.
By contrast, those who have experienced threats to their safety in the past, such as people who grew up in dysfunctional families or in disadvantaged communities, tend to develop strong self-protective instincts. They often try to avoid contact with others or distance themselves from any environment that might pose even a slight danger. On the other hand, among those with more assertive and aggressive temperaments, there are some who, rather than being hurt, are driven to seek positions of power from which they can dominate others. As Bertrand Russell observed, "bolder spirits are stimulated to seek positions in which they can inflict cruelties rather than suffer them."
President Trump, according to a recent film portraying his life, was reportedly a rather timid young man. However, after receiving advice from a certain lawyer, he began to adopt a more aggressive posture, one he has consistently maintained ever since. In this sense, his transformation seems to reflect precisely what Russell described in today's quotation: "bolder spirits are stimulated to seek positions in which they can inflict cruelties rather than suffer them."
