The will to dominate presupposes sadism, not vice versa

Evidence

What the sadist seeks to appropriate is in actuality the transcendent freedom of the victim. But this freedom remains on principle out of reach. And the more the sadist persists in treating the other as an instrument, the more this freedom escapes him. He can act upon the freedom only by making it an objective property of the Other-as-object; that is, on freedom in the midst of the world with its dead-possibilities. But since the sadist’s goal is to recover his being-for-others, he misses it on principle, for the only Other with whom he has to do is the Other in the world who has only “images in his head” of the sadist assaulting him. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 999 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: What the sadist really seeks to appropriate is the Other’s freedom, not the flesh.; Sadism is an illusory attempt to capture freedom through flesh; Dominants are driven by desire to control, not hostility toward subordinates — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 681 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Sadism is an illusory attempt to capture freedom through flesh #expands (0.85)
• Sadism founders because enslaving another’s freedom is inherently self-contradictory. #expands (0.85)
• Dominants are driven by desire to control, not hostility toward subordinates #expands (0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 681
• Unchecked power over others, not participant nature, drives cruelty #corroborates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 475
• Sadism fails because the victim’s transcendent freedom fundamentally escapes capture #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 999
• Violent hatred need not spring from the victim’s power and abuse #corroborates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 66
• Authoritarianism and social dominance are ideologies, not psychopathologies #qualifies (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1602
• Individual sadism is functionally inferior to disciplined bureaucracy for mass killing #qualifies (0.70) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 91