After the hurdles of the past few weeks (which exacted their toll on my holidays), I can now update my blog in the fashion it used to have previously. And so, Part III of the Lessons of Life.
Power is such an ubiquitous term in today's society. Power of knowledge; power of technology; power of the mind; power of life and death; power of speed; power of manipulations; power of the people; etc. Basically, each and everything in life has, in part or as a whole, an association with this abstract phenomenon. Invisible and vague though it may be, it has persisted throughout the inexorable breaths of centuries and decades until today.
Amusing, isn't it? Many people have not seen "power" in its entirety, yet they are able to grasp at it with unwavering confidence of its verisimilitude. Wonderful, yet absurd, at the same time. Still, this is human we're talking about, and humans are about the most advanced creatures in the world, secondary only to fictitious aliens from the outerspace.
What is "power", really? Excluding definitions related to science or engineering or religion, does it mean the ability to do or accomplish something? Or does it mean the possession of control or command over others, such as authority or ascendancy? Or perhaps, following the observation of an author named Amy Tan: the ability to hold someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them? Perhaps it was all these put together, or perhaps only some were true. Or perhaps, none of them were correct at all.
From the anthropological point of view, power has existed since human existed. Humans generally require power in order to achieve their goals, and power facilitates the attainment of such desires. Without power, humans are ... well, powerless. From hunting, to agriculture, to the establishment of communities, cities, capitals, metropolises, and city-states, power has been the dominant factor to achieving these dreams. Humans hold power over animals, plants, and in today's world, a great influence over the capricious forces of nature that were previously thought indomitable. Succeed they did, at a terrible price of innocence.
Kings and emperors of ages and dynasties past have wielded power over the fate of citizens in their sovereignty, and some could be historically attributed to have brandished such important (but perpetually vague) force with great impunity. And they had—in one way or another—stirred dire ramifications for their missteps in using the power given them. Such retributions were understandable appropriate—desirable even—because power, the omnipresently-invisible-but-somehow-or-rather-can-be-wielded universal force (I can't stress this enough, for some reason), holds an unthinkable proportion of changes that will drastically alter how life is lived and how people become humans.
Prominent figures in history such as Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Shih Huang-Ti, and many others had held power in their hands before. And their power caused such an upheaval that life simply became different in their realms of dominance (and also triggered their grand entrance into history books, no doubt). Humans had lived—and are still living—in the presence of power, to which the ugly aspects hidden within Pandora's box had been unleashed into the world by this singular entity alone. I do not suspect that power resides at the apex of the things that drive humans to fall into the wrong side of humanity. Why? It is because power alone can open up the avenue to other resources a human desires. I think we've heard enough of the atrocities committed in the disguised name of power that they need no further elaboration.
The big question to ponder is: When is power going to fade? And no, I'm neither talking about your common electricity nor the rate of transfer of a unit of energy or work for a given unit of time. I am talking about power that humans wield to force themselves and others to do things they do not and would not normally do. Such power is the most aberrant of all forms of wrongness, yet it is also the most abundant, the wildest, and the most sought after by humans. Humans can be such fickle creatures: they know very well that this form of power is destructive, yet they pursue and embrace it with wanton rapture and are willing to kill themselves for such an ephemeral element. Such is a blight in the creations of the Divine.
I don't view power as wrong in its entirety. I understand the need for power to exist and to even subsist until the day Armageddon strikes the world. Without power, law and order and justice cannot be established. Without power, humans fall into chaos and disorientation. Yet, as much as such power is needed, it is also presenting a major stumbling block towards the achievement of true humanity. Yes, that is a utopia that is realistically unattainable, but every single change towards it presents a better and brighter future. It is far better to take a slow step than not taking any at all.
A balance is not impossible to achieve between the two extremes presented by the dilemma over the existence and use of power. It is humans who wield power, and thus it also falls to humans to control its use. This, thus, is the greatest of all powers: the power of the mind and the will. Frankly speaking, as much as power is desirable even to me, but its influence was but a feathery touch that barely register for those whose minds and virtues are steeled against its corruption.
Power versus power, the outcome depends on the human him or herself.
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power". —Abraham Lincoln
P/S: And in case anyone was wondering, yes, this post of mine is made in conjunction with the recent events that happened in the local environment.
