Control is an Illusion

We approach power like it is a magical skill of another person. We meet someone who appears powerful and we think that they hold some secret that we can't find.

We locate power "out there."

It is something that soemone else has - that someone else deserves. It is something that someone else can acquire. They gain wealth or authority. They get power. We are unsure how they got it. It seems like a bit of a mystery. But they have "it." Power is all about them.

The power seems to be located in their "thing." Maybe they have beauty. Maybe they have money. Maybe they have enormous strength. Maybe they have weapons and armies. Maybe they have allies in the right places. Maybe they hold a significant office - like mayor or president or Senator or principal or sherriff or judge or teacher...

Whatever it is, they have it. It's theirs. It is all about them.

We treat it like it is some kind of absolute thing. When you get it, you have it and you will be powerful. Forever.

By putting the idea of power inside another person, or their position, or their holdings, we make it seem like it is so much more than it really is. If power works - if you can control others - we say you have it. If it doesn't work, and others are able to do what they want, we say you don't have it- or that you don't have enough.

But to understand it we have to look beyond this old way of measuring the existence of power.

It is not the effect that determines the existence of power. One can have power and have it not work. One can be powerful but not effect the consequence they are looking for. Ask any cop or parent. Ask any politician. Ask any king. Ask any CEO.

Power is not the effect. It is the process we use. Power is a method of effecting choice. Nothing more but nothing less.

The target of this process is choice. The choice one makes to say do or think something. In the end those who want to have power and want to use power, are trying to impact the behaviour of others in some way. That is, in some way useful to them.

But the truth is that this process of effecting choice is not perfect. It is not absolute. The ability to make a choice never goes away. The powerful person may be able to create in you feelings of fear or anger or excitement. You may feel Control, Influence or Seduction. But you still can make a choice and if you make that choice without succumbing to those feelings, then the power did not work.

But it is still power.

Power is not absolute. Control is an illusion.

If you seem to have control it is simply that the person you targeted - the Subject - was somehow willing to allow you to affect their choice because you successfully made it appear to be in their best interests.

That is what power is about. It is a mechanical process that works on the person level. It is not some omni-present force field that comes with one's position or possessions.

Power is never perfect. Power is never absolute.

That is because choice never goes away.

So it does not surprise us to see that any domination of others comes to an end.

All empires have fallen. From the Sumarians to the Greeks to the Romans to the British to the Soviets to the American Empire. It is inevitable. Power is not absolute. Control is an illusion. People are ruled because they find it in their best interests to be ruled. People never lose choice. And when it appears that choice needs to be exercised, then power fails.

Control is an illusion. Power is not absolute because the target of all power is choice. And though choice can be controlled, influenced or seduced from time to time, in the end choice remains. It never goes away. And history has proven, over and over again, that ultimately, control fails. Power fails.

It is no less power because it failed.

Power is simply a response to the circumstances.

Life brings us circumstances from time to time. Situations in which we can make choices and effect what comes next. When we want a particular outcome we look at those circumstances and do what we think will get us what we want. Sometimes those circumstances include people. And we may need those people to do what we wish to get what we want. So we have turned to power. We have turned to trying to get those people to make choices to do or say or think something that will help us get what we are seeking.

That is the use of power. To accomplish our goal we use power to make people respond the way we want.

That is the only thing we really control - how we respond to what life brings us. And most of us control it badly.

This is what really powerful people do. They examine the circumstance and act in a way that gets people to respond the way they want.

Powerful people know control is an illusion. The only thing you control is how you respond to the circumstance before you. In knowing this they create an opportunity to use power.

In their response to the circumstance - in their attempt to use power - they control and focus their response - they try to focus their response on the Source of Power.

So on to Question Two...



What is the Source of Power?


The Source of Power is the Need within the Subject.
But for the Need, there is no Power.

Needs are experienced as Requirements, Desires, and Attachments.

Needs are Complex, Compounding and Competing.