Power: Myth and Reality

Abstract

This article sees the current identification of power with brute physical force (power of coercion) as an unjustifiable oversimplification of the variety of meanings of power. It analyzes the concept of power within a deeper philosophical framework in order to discover its present distortions. It argues that on a deeper level the source of power is authority, which is born of extraordinary qualities that human beings are capable of possessing. The adulation of power as brute force (in the present Western society) is thus a compensation for not possessing real power - i.e. moral authority as a special human quality. The present physical interpretation of power is but a manifestation of the larger process of turning everything into an object, generally an object of manipulation. One of the preconditions of restoring justice and equity among nations and among individuals, in the author's view, is to strip the notion of power of its corrupting and brutalizing character. The paper finally attempts to answer the larger question of how to empower people as people so that they do not feel helpless objects of manipulation and become agents responsible for their own destiny.