Good Power?

There are those who pursue power because they say they can use it for good.

Some say good things happen when good people use power for a good reason.

I think it is important to understand authority properly before you can say if power is good or bad.

Authority is power by consent. It is still power. It is still about Needs. It is still a way for people to fulfill Needs in the great social nature of human existence.

We are a social beast. We fall out of another human being and if they don’t pick us up, we die. From the instant we are born we are constantly interacting with other humans to have our basic requirements of life satisfied. We need each other. We need each other for so much more than food and security. We need each other because this life we take is meant to be our human experience. Humans are not meant to live alone.

But to live together we need rules. We need agreements and conventions. We need predictability and consistency. Without the rules of social interaction we are unable to accomplish the great things. So we create authority.

Let’s not talk about politics. It just gets us confused. Let’s skip political power just for today. Let’s talk about something easy.

As a social beast we need a lot of things other than government. We need language to have knowledge. We need knowledge to have technology. We need technology to enjoy the lifestyle we live. These needs will create conventions and rules we are happy to submit to. They offer nothing but possibilities of hope and prosperity.

Of course knowledge can be abused and manipulated as a mechanism of power. But like everything we need, it is available to be used for power.

To get knowledge you must be a tax payer in our society to go school and use our libraries. We see nothing wrong with such institutions. They are a reflection of the best intentions of people. They are the best of authority.

However authority, like any mechanism of power can used for good and bad.

We would all agree to have a library. It is a worthwhile institution. It is a benefit to a society. Boy, Ben Franklin was a smart guy with a cool idea.

We know that to be able to have it, we would submit to the rules of the library. After all you can’t have a thousand books just floating around. We need to organize them and keep track of them so everyone can use them.

Of course to submit to the rules of the library is to submit to the authority of the librarian.

If she acts inappropriately, we will remove her from the position and take the authority away. We can replace her and then once again be happy to submit to the authority of a new librarian. After all, we want the books and the knowledge in them.

This is power by consent. The librarian gets her power from the agreement of the people to let her be in charge of the books. Her authority comes from the people. In this case, we would say this is good power. It keeps the books organized and keeps people from hurting our collective knowledge base. We see her power to levy fines and revoke privileges as a good use of power because we need someone to take care of the books. She uses our need for a library. Applies her authority to organize and protect. She gets compliance from us and we take our books back on time.

Power by consent- authority. What makes it good is that we have agreed to submit to it. What makes it good is that the authority is not being abused for her own purposes.

Nonetheless it is the exploitation of a need. And that is what power is.

When authority is taken or imposed there is no consent. When authority is abused for personal gain, we call it corruption. We might call this the abuse of power. We might call it bad power.

But then what is power for, except to get what we want?

What did we think would happen when we give people the authority to use power?

How many times do you have to be told? – Power corrupts.

Power and corruption are twin sisters. They are the same use of power by consent. However we like one and hate the other.

Good power is authority given with true well-meaning and informed consent. Everything else is corruption.