Under asymmetric power, the rationality of the ruled serves the rulers’ aims.

Evidence

Stakes and resources are manipulated by those who truly control the situation: who are able to make some choices too costly to be frequently selected by those whom they rule, while securing frequent and massive selection of choices which bring closer their aims and reinforce their control. This capacity does not change, whether the aims of the rulers are beneficial or detrimental to the interests of the ruled. Under sharply asymmetrical power conditions, rationality of the ruled is, to say the least, a mixed blessing. It may work to their gain. But it may as well destroy them. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 424

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the mechanism by which rational choice becomes a tool of domination once stakes and resources are controlled by the powerful.
• XREF: connects to: The state’s ethical function raises masses to a level serving ruling-class interests; Rationality of the ruled is always the weapon of the rulers — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 399; Physical force constitutes power because it asymmetrically orders parties’ relative preferences (+2 more)

Related

• Rationality of the ruled is always the weapon of the rulers (similarity 0.83)
• The state’s ethical function raises masses to a level serving ruling-class interests (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Physical force constitutes power because it asymmetrically orders parties’ relative preferences #expands (0.80)
• Duty-based moral systems enforce asymmetric, non-proportional exchange favoring the powerful. #exemplifies (0.78) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 553