Is power an aphrodisiac?

During my nightly troll, look what the Internet brought in. S. F. Gate story

The story quotes Stanford Professor Deborah Gruenfeld, who is a social psychologist focusing on the study of power. When in her earlier career she worked as a journalist, Gruenfeld occasionally met with Rolling Stone founder and publisher Jann Wenner. According to this article, "She recalls that he (Wenner) routinely would swig vodka from a bottle and eat raw onions -- without ever offering to share -- 'and it never even occurred to the rest of us, because it was understood that he had the power and we did not.'"

I've heard this same story from several sources over the years while researching my book on Wenner, but this is the first time I've seen anyone go public with it. In my day at the magazine, I saw him snort cocaine. And, of course, everyone drank. But when I first heard that he was resorting to daytime vodka swigging, I doubted it was true.

First, one person told me, then another, then another. Today's article pushes it well into the realm of the believable. Professor Gruenfeld sees it as a prerogative of power to act this way, and she's right. We've all had bosses at one time or another who acted in ways so outrageous that if we'd tried to copy them, we would have been summarily dismissed.

I've worked with a lot of CEOs since Wenner. I've watched power up close, and seen its temptations, its abuses and its sweet kindnesses. I do not agree with Henry Kissinger, who supposedly coined the "power is the ultimate aphrodisiac" phrase. Henry is one of the prime ass-kissers of all time. My friend who is David Rockefeller's granddaughter told me some wicked Kissinger stories. The old man himself indicated a certain disdain toward his protégé when I asked him what he thought about the drive to bring Kissinger before an international war crime tribunal.

Since he had no real power of his own, I wonder who Kissinger was attracted to? Rockefeller? Nixon? Or was he referring to his own derivative power, serving at the whim of his masters, therebvy allowing him to abuse underlings and attract lovers who otherwise would have eschewed him completely?

Some people wield power cruelly, employing fear as their main weapon of control. Others use charm, even though they remain capable of duplicity that would make an hypocrite cringe. Most utilize a tool I like to call the "forgetter," as in they conveniently forget who originated the ideas they appropriate.

One way or another, all such behavior is, of course, as despicable as it is so recognizably human. Who among us could do better?