The desire for power is a significant enduring issue due to the fact of greed. Greed leads you to make unhealthy and tyrant like decisions to get what you want in your hands. You wish for fame, money, and overall power. Instead of this, you would get fame from how evil and greedy you are. This will backfire.
I'm assuming it's due to the increased exploration by explorers in that time period. Explorers traveled new lands and imprisoned more people (slaves) to be used for labor in Europe and America.
Usually it would be used as blackmail and americans in 1950 were all against gay americans, so somebody finding out you were gay would lead to public despise and possibly being fired.
