What does it mean to have power? Why do we want power? How is power exercised? For what is power used? In speaking of people, power really means the ability to do what you wish, and the ability to control or affect others. The reason we want it is obvious- for our own safety and satisfaction. How such power is used, and for what purpose, determines whether we are simply self gratifying, monstrous tyrants or helpful and useful in society.
It is interesting in itself that the ability to do as you wish and to control or affect others is called power. It is sometimes called influence, a more neutral word chosen in diplomacy, or friendship. Power implies the ability to force others to do as we wish. Friendship imply a desire on the part of the other party to meet our needs and interact with us. Influence suggests a more benign path than compulsion or force, one based on mutual interests or benefit to the coerced party.
I dislike the old saw 'powder corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely', but it is true. The ability to compel others can be quite pleasing, and I imagine the more you can compel exactly what you want, the more self indulgent and petty the requests become. While celebrities have legitimate special needs in public because of paparazzi, their behavior suggests something more childish and self indulgent. It must be quite a head rush to spend 20,000.00 in an hour at Bergdorf-Goodman, shopping privately before the store has opened, with a private shopper assigned to find anything you want-any size, color, object (an actual story). Ultimately, the requests become ridiculously childish, like the jar full of only red M and Ms that had to back stage for a band or it would not perform.
I think this gets at the roots of the desire for power, which are based in childhood. Parents can compel us, either with bribes, cajoling, screaming, physical punishment, or simply outright picking us up. A parent can take a favored toy away from a child to put the child to bed, or for punishment. It must be quite frustrating for a child to have his or her world completely controlled and dependent upon an authority figure. It must be a commensurately attractive fantasy to have such control over the world. I imagine those who most wish to indulge themselves through power have been most suppressed, most damaged, most controlled as children.
Certainly the most extreme expressions of personal power are childish in their self indulgence, but also in their cruelty. Requiring candy to perform a concert for which you will be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars is obviously self indulgent, but it is also cruel and manipulative. The person wishes to go beyond one adult measure of respect and worth, money, and have whims indulged, presumably because it is somehow gratifying to have people jump to do the ridiculous for you.
There is another side to power, and that is the ability to do things constructively. Those with power can do anything they want; it is then a measure of their soul to see what they choose to do. Some choose to help others, to do what is generally called 'good works', to build, to create, to dare, to risk. In thinking of the story of the three men given talents (money), if you have one talent you return the one unharmed. If you have ten, you invest, risking much but also producing much.
The exercise of power for personal reasons is obvious, satisfying, self indulgent, and a blind passage. It is a more mature, a more developed use of power to use it to help others and to improve the world. Those who do this may be no less damaged or manipulated as children, but they have learned that simply inflicting that hurt on others does not take it away. It is better for self, and all, to try to better the world than to manipulate it.
I have lived both sides of this. I imagined it would be wonderful to have the title 'doctor'. It is the title borne by my father, my mother, my uncle, my grandfather, my cousin and 5 other relatives. It was clearly a title associated for me with respect, achievement and authority. I imagined it would be glorious to be 'Dr. Tsaltas'.
I do admit there is some satisfaction in those words. However, I quickly found out it meant less than nothing. Those who used the title were being either obsequious or sarcastic, especially when I was an intern. I had done nothing to earn their respect or deference. Most of the young women I met were only interested in the presumptive monetary benefits of the title, and were quite willing to trade sex for access to it, a transaction no different from prostitution. I felt embarrassed when the older nurses used it, because they knew more than I did, and had no need to address me with an honorific. My supervisors used the title only when I was in trouble. My friends never used it, and its only real strength was it let me into places I could otherwise not access, and it let me write prescriptions.
Although I had acquired great knowledge, patients did not respect that knowledge in and of itself; they did not even understand it. Others were not interested, and leading with knowledge as the badge of power made me a geek of the first order in most people's eyes, a status I had 'enjoyed' all my life.
I found that what gave me pleasure was not impressing people with my knowledge, using the title with authority or anything like that. What gave, and gives, me pleasure in being a doctor is being able to help people. Patients come to me afraid, in pain, confused, in despair because of their inability to obtain help for their suffering from themselves, government, friends or their workplace. I can so often help them with all these things. That is what I am here for- to relieve suffering, of the body, the soul and the mind- physical pain, depression, anxiety. I get great satisfaction from patients who enter my office in fear and leave with smiles and hope. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. I want to live that phrase in the eyes of others.
In this paradigm, the corruption of absolute power is not self indulgence, but the ability to correct or fix anything. Clearly this is impossible, and can lead to the satisfying of inappropriate needs in others. If the corruption of self indulgent power is childishness, the corruption of helping others is to become an enabler.
Whether 'power', as the term is used among people, is used benignly or malignantly, it must be used with the guidance of the mind, not simply the id. Impulsive satisfaction of whims or of problems is simply indulgence, whether of self or of others. Like so much else in life, power must be controlled, or it hurts the individual and others.
It is an oriental style paradox that the greatest expression of power is in self control, in restraint. It is the most powerful and confident person who walks most calmly and purposefully.
Ted
It is interesting in itself that the ability to do as you wish and to control or affect others is called power. It is sometimes called influence, a more neutral word chosen in diplomacy, or friendship. Power implies the ability to force others to do as we wish. Friendship imply a desire on the part of the other party to meet our needs and interact with us. Influence suggests a more benign path than compulsion or force, one based on mutual interests or benefit to the coerced party.
I dislike the old saw 'powder corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely', but it is true. The ability to compel others can be quite pleasing, and I imagine the more you can compel exactly what you want, the more self indulgent and petty the requests become. While celebrities have legitimate special needs in public because of paparazzi, their behavior suggests something more childish and self indulgent. It must be quite a head rush to spend 20,000.00 in an hour at Bergdorf-Goodman, shopping privately before the store has opened, with a private shopper assigned to find anything you want-any size, color, object (an actual story). Ultimately, the requests become ridiculously childish, like the jar full of only red M and Ms that had to back stage for a band or it would not perform.
I think this gets at the roots of the desire for power, which are based in childhood. Parents can compel us, either with bribes, cajoling, screaming, physical punishment, or simply outright picking us up. A parent can take a favored toy away from a child to put the child to bed, or for punishment. It must be quite frustrating for a child to have his or her world completely controlled and dependent upon an authority figure. It must be a commensurately attractive fantasy to have such control over the world. I imagine those who most wish to indulge themselves through power have been most suppressed, most damaged, most controlled as children.
Certainly the most extreme expressions of personal power are childish in their self indulgence, but also in their cruelty. Requiring candy to perform a concert for which you will be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars is obviously self indulgent, but it is also cruel and manipulative. The person wishes to go beyond one adult measure of respect and worth, money, and have whims indulged, presumably because it is somehow gratifying to have people jump to do the ridiculous for you.
There is another side to power, and that is the ability to do things constructively. Those with power can do anything they want; it is then a measure of their soul to see what they choose to do. Some choose to help others, to do what is generally called 'good works', to build, to create, to dare, to risk. In thinking of the story of the three men given talents (money), if you have one talent you return the one unharmed. If you have ten, you invest, risking much but also producing much.
The exercise of power for personal reasons is obvious, satisfying, self indulgent, and a blind passage. It is a more mature, a more developed use of power to use it to help others and to improve the world. Those who do this may be no less damaged or manipulated as children, but they have learned that simply inflicting that hurt on others does not take it away. It is better for self, and all, to try to better the world than to manipulate it.
I have lived both sides of this. I imagined it would be wonderful to have the title 'doctor'. It is the title borne by my father, my mother, my uncle, my grandfather, my cousin and 5 other relatives. It was clearly a title associated for me with respect, achievement and authority. I imagined it would be glorious to be 'Dr. Tsaltas'.
I do admit there is some satisfaction in those words. However, I quickly found out it meant less than nothing. Those who used the title were being either obsequious or sarcastic, especially when I was an intern. I had done nothing to earn their respect or deference. Most of the young women I met were only interested in the presumptive monetary benefits of the title, and were quite willing to trade sex for access to it, a transaction no different from prostitution. I felt embarrassed when the older nurses used it, because they knew more than I did, and had no need to address me with an honorific. My supervisors used the title only when I was in trouble. My friends never used it, and its only real strength was it let me into places I could otherwise not access, and it let me write prescriptions.
Although I had acquired great knowledge, patients did not respect that knowledge in and of itself; they did not even understand it. Others were not interested, and leading with knowledge as the badge of power made me a geek of the first order in most people's eyes, a status I had 'enjoyed' all my life.
I found that what gave me pleasure was not impressing people with my knowledge, using the title with authority or anything like that. What gave, and gives, me pleasure in being a doctor is being able to help people. Patients come to me afraid, in pain, confused, in despair because of their inability to obtain help for their suffering from themselves, government, friends or their workplace. I can so often help them with all these things. That is what I am here for- to relieve suffering, of the body, the soul and the mind- physical pain, depression, anxiety. I get great satisfaction from patients who enter my office in fear and leave with smiles and hope. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. I want to live that phrase in the eyes of others.
In this paradigm, the corruption of absolute power is not self indulgence, but the ability to correct or fix anything. Clearly this is impossible, and can lead to the satisfying of inappropriate needs in others. If the corruption of self indulgent power is childishness, the corruption of helping others is to become an enabler.
Whether 'power', as the term is used among people, is used benignly or malignantly, it must be used with the guidance of the mind, not simply the id. Impulsive satisfaction of whims or of problems is simply indulgence, whether of self or of others. Like so much else in life, power must be controlled, or it hurts the individual and others.
It is an oriental style paradox that the greatest expression of power is in self control, in restraint. It is the most powerful and confident person who walks most calmly and purposefully.
Ted
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