the nature of power

8/6/2019 The Nature of Power

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The nature of power.

I think that there are two major axes around which human power is deployed. One is

external, the other internal. External power manifests itself in the form of the distribution

of bodies one is powerful to the degree to which one can influence the world todistribute bodies in the way that one desires. This might be economic power (I can fly to

Chicago whenever I want, something that is simply out of the reach of a peasant in

mexico); political power (I can cause an entire army of men to organize and deploy witha single word); military power (and they, in turn, can cause whole nations to obey my

command).

Internal power manifests itself as the felt and actual consequences of these distributions.I may not be able to move a nation to my will, but I can entirely choose how I feel about

it. Because internal power is so, well, internal, it can seem less powerful but we

should never underestimate the power of a man who can choose to live at an existential

level however he wishes regardless of the external circumstance. The great king who ishappy only when he is in control of the world around him is always going to be less

happy and satisfied than the lone monk who is happy regardless of what the world throwsat him. Not that happiness is any key measure only that it allows an index of the

potency of power.

In physics, the measure of electrical power is the product of electrical charge (how manyelectrons you are moving) and field intensity (how hard it is to move them). Physics

gives us many metaphors of power that will be useful to think about human power.

Power is very closely related to energy. Indeed, power is the playing-out of energy intime. A gallon of gas contains so much energy so much potential to do something.

The horsepower of a gasoline engine is a measure of how much of this energy the enginecan deploy in a given time. The more horsepower, the more energy can be put to use in agiven unit of time. (As a side note, there are only two ways you can increase the

horsepower of an engine you can either increase its efficiency, the degree to which it is

able to deploy the energy in the gasoline it uses, or you can increase the amount ofgasoline it consumes in a unit time. A jet engine, for example, is much more efficient

than a piston engine so produces more power per gallon of gasoline.)

This is power A very brute and simple manifestation of power. If I have a mass that Iwant to accelerate, I have to deploy a force. The more power I have, the more force I can

deploy in a given unit of time. With a lot of power, I can accelerate a mass to high

speeds quickly. This is, of course, incredibly powerful it is the basis of motorizedtransport, powered weapons and construction machinery. In the human domain, it is

perhaps closest to the consequences of these physical manifestations: the movement of

peoples, the clash of armies, the sort of brute movements of bodies through space withouta whole lot of subtlety. Big, macro forces like food and energy resources the control

off which affords big shifts in the ability to control space. And people.

Mechanical motion is, notoriously, both reversible and entropic. That is, if it takes you


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ten units of power to accelerate a mass to a certain velocity; it will get you ten units of

power if you decelerate it back to where you started. Power-in, power-out. You get out

exactly what you put in. And, since the system is entropic, it is always losing andwasting power (friction, turbulence, etc.). You actually always get out a bit less than you

put in. There is an essential scarcity here.

But then we can look at another kind of power. When a cell replicates into another cell,

there is a tremendous amount of power involved. But, this time, power of a different

order. It is still all about the deployment of energy but now not for the purpose ofmoving a mass in space now for the purpose of the creation and dissolution of forms.

The delicate, seemingly architected, bonding of chemical to chemical and mapping of

protein to protein. Here power is a measure of throughput the number of transactions

that can be completed in a given unit of time. Metabolism. What a beautiful engine that takes in sugar and outputs not motion but form. Body and mind. This is a very

sideways turning. A capture of the simple process of mechanical power into a rococo

mechanism that flows into a, well, completely different form. Like a music box that

converts simple mechanical energy (the turning of the key, the tension of the spring) intoa song and the twirling of a dancer on a pedestal. Energy converted to energy converted

to energy by a network of translation mechanisms. Outputting something of an entirelydifferent nature and something of a much more enduring value.

This more subtle kind of power behaves a little differently. When you turn the key on

your music box, the resulting effect requires the input of the mechanical energy thattightens the spring. But the output is very different indeed. The music bears no relation

to the power that you put in. Instead, the process of production the creation of the song,

the invention of the technique to convert the song to some form of recording, the actualmanufacture of that object in the music-box, the assembly of the box and the tying of the

music system to the spring all of this is an input of energy that is non-entropic and

enables an output that is qualitatively novel. Compare turning the key to get noise withturning the key to get The Ode to Joy.

Power is not just the deployment of power in a mechanical sense, it is also the creation ofpower. The creation of power-systems that transform and ramify power in deep and

complex ways.

This, of course, is the structure of the vast majority of human power. We are embeddedin a vast network of translation mechanisms that tie us all together. Mechanisms that

have been constructed over the total of historical time and have encoded (memorized)

particular mechanisms for the re-production of power. When a musician plays a song, heis (at the simplest level) converting chemical energy (sugar) into mechanical energy

(strumming a guitar for example). This is an exercise of power. But the majority of his

power results from his ability to attach his strumming into the vast system of music thathas been built and maintained and trained over thousands of years. Key and meter.

Rhythm and reference. We are a trained audience, already primed to resonate at the right

frequency. The metaphor is not that metaphorical. When you are listening to a song, you

can easily imagine the threads that connect you, the emotions you are feeling, the images


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you are seeing, the movements that are created in your body, directly back through to the

musician. He is like a puppet-master leveraging an enormous affect-producing

machine that was constructed by the history of biology, music and culture. For good orfor ill.

Almost the totality of external power works like this. A powerful man is not powerful inhimself. He is wearing power. Like a second skin (a power suit?) that he is able to

control (to a greater and lesser extent) and which dramatically magnifies his power.

Like the musician who plugs-in to the history of music, any form of external power is apulling of threads that are linked-together in a tight and impersonal mesh. This is why

a fool can become (externally) powerful, simply by putting on the suit of President.

Of course, the threads of a power-system are tightly woven. Wearing a given powersystem can be as constraining as empowering. The Queen of England surely has much

power. But, just as surely, she is as constrained, restricted, constricted, shaped and

cajoled by her power system as she is empowered. This, I think, is the trap that many

find themselves in. As someone powerless, you might look at the powerful and feel themmore free than you simply because they have access to a more potent power-system.

But unless you fully understand the degree to which they are at the mercy of their power-system, you dont know the whole story. Beware what you seek. In many ways, the

slave-owner is as much a victim as the slave.

Much of the potency of power-systems comes from their unconscious, almost law ofnature coercive impact on people. The vast majority of people just dont think to behave

differently. Much of this is necessary. Teams go to great effort to create a collective

power-system that allows them to work with a single, seamless will. By so doing, theydramatically increase their collective power. If each member of a team had to consider

and define his role at each moment in a game, they wouldnt be a team at all. While

individuals can be more or less capable than other individuals, the differential betweenpower systems is even more significant precisely because a power system can integrate

a potentially indefinite mass of people into its unified will.

The majority of blocks and behaviors that people feel imposing an external will on them

stem from the various nested power systems that make up society. That you ought to do

this, or ought to do that. Even as a child, you begin to feel the ought nature of emergent

power systems. Whatever position you have in the power system, you are in the powersystem and fell the tug of its obligations, the consequences of its valuations and

evaluations. All of racism is and was a vast power system the consequences of which

are clearly still being played-out. All of racism and all of each and every role that onecan play in society. A role is defined by the power systems that grab ahold of it and

cause it to dance in one way or another, invest it with attributes and potentialities (strong

or weak). Large and small most of our actions are determined by the integrated totalityof the various power systems. Very little freedom actually exists in the world.

Yet, we need our power-systems. At an economic level, humanity has expanded well

beyond our ability to provide for our own survival using simple, ephemeral (tribal) modes


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of power. If we were, all at once, to rid ourselves of the accreted power systems of

history the nation, the state, the corporation, we would implode as a species in very

short form. But the utility of power systems is not simply economic. Art is an extendedpower system for magnifying the potency of individual expression. Language.

Medicine. Science. All of these institutions and their training, their roles, their

knowledge. We cant get along without them but do we have to take them as theycome?

Power-systems pervade and enshroud us. But they are not all of a single voice. Even agiven power-system is full of contradictions and tensions. The power system of slavery

found itself on the short-end of the stick when the power systems of liberal democracy

and capitalism combined to negate its power-distributions. Certainly the increasingly

global field off power is absolutely ripe with opportunities to constitute and reconstitutenew power-systems. Play one tension off of another tension. Make novel use of a thread

here. Break a connection there. All it takes is consciousness of power and the ability to

play with it.

What is power as it is experienced? At first blush, power is easy. An exercise of power

occurs when you are able to impose your will upon the world to desire something andto get what you desire. Such an exercise in power feels good no doubt this is closely

linked to the obvious survival advantages associated with becoming more powerful.

However, that is not the end of the game. In fact, it is just the surface, the beginning. Thedynamics of power are complicated. The nature of power as getting what you want is

surely the primary way that power is felt and understood. But it is really only one way

in a manifold hierarchy of power. Getting what you want, being able to get what youwant, being able to secure for yourself what is considered valuable this is only one of

many orders of power. There are other orders of power:

1. Being able to secure values to yourself

2. Being able to forgo values (being rich-enough)

3. Being able to bestow values on others (being superfluous)4. Being able to bestow power on others

5. Being able to create values

Look over this list. Think about different examples of each. You can see how each is akind of power. You can see how they are different and that a higher order power really is

a higher order power. In order to be able to bestow values on others, you first must be

able to forgo valuable things yourself. He who seeks that which is considered valuable isreally only at the lowest level of power. Each level of gentling of spirit and raising of

capacity increases the distance from that which is considered valuable. Until, at last, one

becomes a giver and creator of values an artist of the power systems and not theirpuppet.

With this progression, we can see how any relationship is in essence an opportunity for

mutual development and elevation. Indeed, it is only through the gift giving virtue and


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the bestowing virtue that one can achieve distance from the lowest level of power. It is at

only the lowest level of power that there is any real struggle for power. The fact that the

vast majority of power relationships linger at this first order level is evidence of the manychallenges and weaknesses that keep our powers low.

Doubt and lack of self confidence. That which thirsts for praise, or which turns towounding others.

Distrust of others and the projection of ill motives onto others.

Fear and greed

Actual physical, nutritional and psychological lack

To achieve a higher-order power, we must be strong enough. Systems of power canmagnify our ability to exercise power and in so doing make us capable of higher orders

of power. At the same time, systems of power can dampen our capacities. Indeed,

systems of power are almost always enormously dangerous nests of disability and

weakness. This is because most systems of power have been designed to secure and

control power of the first order. To secure (superficial) external power at the expenseof a more profound internal power that would allow you to climb to higher orders of

power (higher in both the internal and external sense).

One can achieve and even maximize power of the first order through mechanisms of

domination by utilizing techniques that make use of weakness and fear to dominateothers in order to secure your own ability to exercise power. In an environment of

scarcity and desperation, this can be the best or at least the easiest to understand path to

power.

These kinds of power can be seductive. Moreover, they can be infectious. One deals in

fear and weakness at ones own risk. It is precisely these power suits that mostconstrain and control those that wear them. They make you feel powerful while reallymaking you dependent upon them and reducing your power your ability to achieve

higher orders of power. Many, perhaps most, power systems are unhealthy or at least

dangerous. But, power-systems are not essentially perverse.

We know that power has a specific history. Each power-system was born in a particular

environment and in response to particular conditions. To solve some specific problem.All of our ideas about what is needful and good flow from our culture and history and our

biological inheritance as human beings - as living beings - as things that exist and persist

in time. The history of any power-system will always trace-back to some origin that made

sense at the time in human terms. Some trade-off that was worth making. It might havebeen a mistake or, quite frequently, short-sighted. But it was not capricious. Over time,

of course, a long history of mistakes, foolishness and short-sightedness, combined with

plenty of bad-faith on the part of those who were able to hold and control the power-systems has erected one hell of a mess that we need to unwind.

The evaluation of any given act of power requires a complex review. Which systems ofpower are at play and how is power being used? What order of power and what is being


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done? Power never speaks with one voice and is frequently multi-faceted. Indeed, even

when you intend a particular exercise of power it is never certain that it is not power that

is exercising you. Perhaps it is not that we need to become conscious of power but thatpower needs to become conscious of power. A becoming self-conscious of power itself.

Go back and look at the five orders of power. Order five: being able to create values. Nolonger dependent upon pre-existing and inherited values, one can transcend the existing

power-systems and begin bestowing value creating new evaluations, new distinctions.

But if this is outside of the power-systems, from where does this power to create valuescome?

Power looks like a geology. Plate tectonics. The values and power-systems that

distribute them are at the surface. But that is all that they are: a thin surface resting on amolten core. Occasionally, this core will erupt and a form of power will break through

the surface which is entirely new and different. Occasionally, ebbs and flows in this

subterranean world will determine that huge chunks of the surface will break-apart and

flow. Occasionally, someone will dive down, deep, deep into the heart of the world, andtap into this source. Herein lies power with a different name entirely.

the nature of power

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