Power

According to Merriam-Webster:

… ability to act or produce an effect.

… legal or official authority, capacity, or right.

 …or…

… possession of control, authority, or influence over others.

… physical might.

… mental or moral efficacy.

… political control or influence.

Power, simplified for this post, is the one unassuming word that, unless you have it, you will never understand what it means to be entrusted with and/or wield it.

I keep Twitter around as a primary source for contemporary events – not to mindlessly follow the trends and discussions, but rather to understand the relationships between what is being said against how it is being discussed.

Over the past few weeks, there have been plenty of discussions with a common theme: power and the (often despicable) actions of those with it versus how those actions are perceived. It could be anything: power to influence, power to lead, power to act, power to determine the future… and – possibly – in some cases, the power to avoid accountability.

During that time, I have revisited the idea that I will more than likely never understand the scope of having that level of power and the evolution of my own personal ethics and behavior if such a level of power is achieved.

This is where I think many folks miss the point – that they will not understand the opiate of authority on the scale which they often argue, debate, and rail about. Think about it: would the average person fully comprehend the ability to satisfy nearly any impulse?

• Don’t want to relocate for work? How about a private jet to fly you from Newport Beach, CA to Seattle Washington three times a week…? Oh yes, of course – that is a round trip…

• Want fresh lobster? How about one which was caught in Maine, flown in Next-Day Air, and prepared in Los Angeles for lunch?

• How about a comfortable boat for tooling around? Ah, we have a deal for you – this lovely 315-foot 1997 superyacht… for only $100 million. Of course, the estimated operating cost might be around $10 million… but one cannot argue successfully against “only the finest…”

Of course, those are examples of spending and not examples of power. However, that is the point – wealth, as a rule, accompanies power; and the ability to hold such a level of disposable income also implies that such opulence might distort distinctions between right and wrong. Morality could become a commodity, cooperation and acquiescence as a tribute, and proximity as an approval, promotion, or Brand.

I cannot fathom how absolute power corrupts so absolutely because that mindset is beyond my ability to understand it on a foundational level. I cannot understand – nor would I really want to – how high-profile human trafficking, reprehensible acts to promote careers, the reprehensible comfort and confidence in intimidation… how all of these are deemed as “normal” if at all. Even more mind-boggling is the defense and justifications of such people and their actions without looking at the bigger pictures:

• That folks are more interested in a List of those who were the recipients of those who were trafficked than the fact that such a List could (and has) become a political tool…
• That folks insisted on believing victims – as long as they held similar political alignments…
• That folks lamented the threat of separation from parents but seemingly rejoiced the loss of children of… again… their political antipodes.
• That folks prefer confirmation bias over admission of cognitive dissonance.

This. This is what power does – it creates siloes of morality and empathy.

It can dehumanize, legitimize crimes against individuals or humanity, and retroactively re-interpret to fit a desired narrative and/or message.

It fosters the need for a figurehead for a cause.

It elevates the extremes to levels of attention and credibility.

It creates a grey area between strong power and weak power.

It usurps accountability and morality.

It changes perception… or deflects attention to avoid perception.

It can short circuit my “only two of the three options” example in Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Part II:

Ethos, pathos, and logos… ethics, emotion, and logic. It seems that we can only choose two and not all three:

Ethics + emotion = illogical

Emotion + logic = unethical

Logic + ethics = emotionless

Interestingly, Douglas Adams poked fun at the idea and motivations of those who sought power in his book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

Are there instances of benevolent power and the resistance of the opiate of influence and direction in human history?

Sure… and any examples provided can easily turn into arguments about academic debates on intent, second- and third-order effects, and whatever “…yeah, but” contradictions might exist.

That’s not the point.

The point is simple: you and I will never understand why people in power do what they do. We don’t get to understand… and, thankfully, will probably never have that kind of litmus test for who we think we are versus who we might become if granted power only found in echelons above common reality.

Perhaps it is futile to even try to understand how humans can exist in the extremes “below the apes/above the angles,” as Adam Franklin would suggest. After all, we also do not have the power to determine their celestial fate or price for inhuman depravity.

“But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses.”

― Robert Ardrey, African Genesis: A Personal Investigation Into the Animal Origins and nature of Man

We only have power over ourselves – the choices we make and the direction we go from this moment.