Now the Master Up, Now the (sub) Miss

Funny how I've floated through this life, close up to the likely 70-year end of it, and utterly failed to grasp that my take on it (life), and the understanding that most of my fellow humans have of it is somehow totally dissimilar; so much so that I have to say that, in some very important matters, I don't understand my fellows at all.  This has become increasingly evident to me as I have delved deeper and deeper into Dominance/submission/Masochism/Sadism.  I have read by now quite a few serious philosophical, as well as pornographic, expositions of this perplexing subject--I have even watched (tried to watch) pornographic movies about it--and, in the end I have to say:  I don't get it.  But a huge percentage--maybe 85%--of my fellow creatures, unlike me, have no difficulty whatever with its basic premises: 

 Most human relations are about (1) "power." (2)  Most people would like to relinquish their "power," and give it over to a "skillful" (3) Dom or Domme, who will inflict (4) measured, agreed-upon amounts of pain, discomfort and humiliation upon them, thus enabling them to feel the pleasure of "endorphins" (5) and, not least, the pleasure of pleasing (6) their cruel/caring Master/Mistress, and (7) to lose the burdensome consciousness of themselves as responsible, inner, individual, emotional, reflective selves.