how many times do I have to tell you it's all about power?

I am very sorry to have missed out on the hip-hop blogging, which appears to be resolved now. Good points on both sides, guys. Danny, I feel like we've finally tapped into your passion and the blog is almost over. That's a shame, but thanks for bringing it up- I just learned a lot about hip-hop I didn't know!
Since nobody has responded to Iain yet, I feel I should. But I also feel we've reached an impasse. What more can I say but Milton is wrong? Love is not the natural state- life is but a motion of limbs, and but the pursuit of power over other men. This is not love, for love is selfless. There is no way to reconcile the drive for power as a love for power, because (as I said in my presentation--was anyone listening?) pursuit of power over another requires selfishness, while love requires selflessness. Power means putting yourself first over others. We do not get what we "deserve," unless deserving is construed as ability to take. Because that's how society becomes ordered: through the power of each man to claw his way above the others. The man most capable of taking power, weilding it, and retaining it, is the most worthy of having it. Worth is not proven by Christian altruism, but by might. Men are created equal, with equal capacities to rise over other men. Natural hierarchy is bunk; if there is a natural hierarchy and all things respect their places in this hierarchy, men would never war with one another. Yet they do so conistently. The flaw in Milton's logic is clear when we look at the world in which we live and the world from which we have come.