In Game of Thrones, Lord Varys and Tyrion Lannister are having a chat and Varys tells him a riddle about three sellswords and asks him who lives and who dies. Tyrion says it depends on the sellsword. Varys challenges that. While the best one that holds a sword may be the one to determine who lives and who dies, he has neither crown or gold or holds favor with the gods. Varys goes on to say if it’s swordsmen who rule, why do we pretend that kings hold all the power?
He then offers the wisdom that power only resides where men believe it resides. It is indeed a trick. He makes the point that even a very small man (like Tyrion) can cast a very large shadow.
Any person in a position of power only wields it because we say they do. It’s kind of like currency. Why is the currency we hold in our hands valuable? It’s just a piece of paper. But we have assigned different values to it. We all believe it, therefore, it has monetary value to us.
