2006-10-05

A brief blurb on Power.

Life is about power. Everything is control.

There are two types of power, the power that sociologists (and Foucault) talk about, and subjective, or individual power. They may or may not be different faces of the same coin.

Sociological power is nebulous, and uncontrollable. No one HAS this power, this power just manifests itself through them, they are controlled by it, as well all are. All actions are in response to, and thus manifestations of this power. The aims of this power is itself, for its own sake. Thus protesting the state of power serves the power, even while seeming against the state of power. Protesting is an autoimmune response, it allows power to strengthen itself in reaction to opposition. Deviance is also a manifestation of power, it sets up an allowed outgroup in which to contrast conformity. These outgroups must suffer, but only suffer as little to allow their existence. There is no escape from this form of power, since even escape is motivated by it, and thus an expression of it. The ends of this power is... I don't know. But it influences our very being, it creates and shapes us.

The other type of power is interpersonal. It is us attacking our own lack of real power. It is us inflicting ourselves on others as means of justifying our existence. It is us trying to claim some control over our lives, and more importantly our environment, through controlling others. I call this inflictive power, in that we inflict it upon others, we subject others to our will. This comes close to Nietzsche's Will to Power (Der Wille zur Macht). We force people to follow our schedules, restrict their access, force them to contend with ourselves, generally try to make them conform to our will. We can do this through constant self-referal, an attempt to control others image of ourselves, we can do this by subtle psychological manipulations, or in more extreme cases through rape, murder, and other acts of violence. This is constant, and inevitable, it is a prime aspect of human nature, the infliction of will upon others.

Contained in this the creative ego, our constant self-shaping. We shape ourselves by presenting an image to others. We inflict some version of who we want to be on others, hoping that they reflect it back upon us. Our very act of self-creation is an infliction of our will upon the other. Our very being is dependent on subjecting others to our will.

Every single one of us is in a constant state of both submission and dominion. We are constantly controlled, and controlling.

Nietzschean power is a reaction to Foucaultian power. Since we are powerless before pervasive power, we must struggle to maintain the myth of control, the shaping of reality to the contents of our minds.

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