Twilight_guy said:
Did you ever see the Twilight Zone episode where a crook dies and winds up in Heaven, but then discovers that everything goes his way and it bugs him and it bugs him until he realizes that he is in fact in hell? Controlling the entire world though mind-control is like that... everything is so predictable and controlled and it is a personal hell. I much prefer simply being able to influence events in my favor and being a puppet-master.
Well like I say... It's only like that if you want it to be like that. And I guess if you only get off by being a rebel and breaking all the rules then this approach isn't going to be for you. But neither is dominating the world any other way.
You don't even need to change anything in peoples minds other than 'This guy is now in charge, and you like that', they just keep living their lives exactly the same. You could put them to work slaving in your uranium mines if you like, but you can equally do nothing other than be the king or chief or whatever you fancy calling yourself. Hell, you don't even have to tell them that you're in charge. As long as they are programmed to do what you want when you tell them it, it doesn't matter if they know or not.
So yeah, the world goes on as per usual.
Assuming you're in control of the world in any respect its going to be pretty boring and predictable, because the world in general is pretty boring and predictable. Being a snarky man in black sounds all well and good, but basically all you have is a less sophisticated and much much harder version of mind control anyway. You can cackle in your lair about how the sheep do your bidding, but if that's what you find attractive, just brainwash them and don't tell them. It amounts the same in the end, that you are in control, but you don't have to spend every waking moment cooking up conspiracies.
Also, although you influence policy and such like, that's not actually very interesting unless you enjoy writing excessively long and complicated documents. Everything has to go through a seriously long process before it achieves anything. As far as having a really awesome day to day life goes, you don't get anything really because no-one actually obeys you. If you want the guy next door to turn his music down you have to orchestrate a ridiculously complex campaign of social engineering which likely takes months or years to get through to him.
If you have them all obeying everything you tell them, you just yell. You want something ? Just ask. That's why I'll take mass hypnosis any day. Particularly since if you take a few days off your conspiracies you'll end up with a knife in your back or everything unwinding a few paces. Its a high stress life and exclusively for the anally retentive and masochistic. Why be king if you can't live like a king ?
Edit -
On an unrelated note, I saw someone earlier today list The Twilight Zone in a thread about 'Something you like that no-one has heard of' and I frankly could barely believe it. I mean seriously ? What's wrong with kids today *shakes head*