Hello to all the visitors I have had over the past couple of weeks.
You have come from Ontario, Quebec, France, Australia and the US - thanks for stopping by.
I'm sorry I haven't been blogging over the last month. I have been working on a Masters degree in law and have had a couple of papers to write. I am struggling with them as we speak.
The first is due Monday so I hope to be back blogging next Tuesday or Wednesday.
I am completing the final edit of the book - due out October 1 - keep your eye here or at my website for the announcement. Frank is back doing my layout and artwork and we are excited about bringing this work to life.
I continue to be interested in your thoughts and questions. Please fell free to pop me a comment here on blogger or if you do not want to go through the trouble of registering I encourage you to either go the website - www.onhavingpower.com or email me direct at lessmith@onhavingpower.com
Your comments and thoughts are important to me and if I can answer any questions that would be fun for all of us I think....
Hope to be back soon
Les
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Globalization
Doing a masters degree in law has been a good power education as well.
Law is obviously a mechanism of power. When you have it on your side, you can have serious impact.
More significantly for me this year has been applying the power analysis to many of the concepts I have been learning and relearning.
This past weekend I took a three day intensive course on Globalization and Global Systems.
There were about 20 people in the class.
Nine women and eleven men. They were from China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, France, Nigeria, Bosnia (former Yugoslavia), Ukraine (former Soviet Union), USA, central Canada, eastern Canada and French Canada. Most have either lived and/or been educated out side of Canada. Most were lawyers but there were three accountants, two economists and an entrepreneur. The lawyers were employed in areas of securities regulation, advertising law, general business practice, international trade, health law and me in education and not practicing. Three people worked for government agencies. Three people worked for banks. Two are simply pursuing higher education. Education level ranged from a single bachelors degree to advanced degrees in math, economics, law and health. Probably a total of 40 different degrees in the room. Six of them have lived in Canada five years or less. Two for less than a year. Two don’t live in Canada. Not everyone was heterosexual. Age range was about 26 to about 60.
The primary instructor is a lawyer with a doctorate in International Law and who practices in the area. The second instructor was the deputy chief economist for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. They were great.
All students were very quiet and cautious. In discussions few strong ideas came out.
We did not get too political though there were critical comments. Most such comments were by Canadians about Canada. Others were about the merits – or lack of merit – in Foreign Aid.
The discussion focused on the forces which drive globalization like innovation, trade and market opportunity; the economics of globalization like currency exchange and deficits; and the regulatory and management oriented world based organizations which impact globalization like the WTO, IMF and World Bank.
We did not talk about terrorism.
I did not hear the word greed even once.
Only once did anyone get emotional.
These last three items were a surprise to me.
I had a great time, met some very smart, enjoyable and interesting people and learned where the gaps in my knowledge are. It was a good experience.
Globalization was defined as the integration of national economies through trade, the movement of labor, capital and technology, multinational corporations, global value supply chains and global money markets.
Our instructor defined it as the pressure for change within a society and the anxiety produced by such change.
The first definition is an observation that offers little explanation as to why it is happening. The second offers insight into why it is happening and why the world is reacting.
I think, from my opinion, the second one is a closer description of the process.
I offer this – globalization is the expanding of economic and political processes from a national to an international orientation driven by the needs and desires of the people living in underdeveloped nations aligning with the ever expanding need for profit by the corporations of the developed world. This process is made possible by the technological innovation in communication and transportation and is facilitated by the domestic governments of the world surrendering aspects of their sovereignty to international organizations.
It is being done on the recommendation of economists who see growth and efficiency as the central and highest of goals.
Yes I think you see it coming. Here comes the power analysis again.
Needs, abilities and choice - that is the power equation. Choices are being made because of the power in need.
One thing is very clear to me as a 46 year old educated white male living in the most affluent society the world has ever seen – we have a fabulous life.
The average person in Canada, the USA and the EU enjoys the kind of long, leisurely, healthy, comfortable, abundant, luxurious and lavish lifestyles that were only enjoyed by kings and queens as little as one hundred years ago.
Millions of people who live every where else would do anything just to become one of our poor.
I can’t say we are any happier. I can’t say we are better people because of this. But I can say that our economic system has resulted in the most comfortable life a commoner has ever enjoyed in history.
People in the developing world want the chance at this life. They witness it in the media that serve the globe. They desire the lifestyle we take for granted.
As people they seek anything that may bring them a little more than they had yesterday. Like a worker who takes a couple of hours of overtime. Or a shopper that seeks out a good deal. They will do what they have to make their life a little better than it was a moment ago. They will take a sweatshop job over no job. They will compromise their health for a chance to feed their children regularly. They would rather break their back in a factory than lie on it as a whore. They want to make their life better and a job in a sweatshop is better than what they had yesterday.
They want a better life.
So do we.
We seek out ways to save money and make our paycheck go further. We want more and better everything. If Wal-Mart can get us clothing for 25% less than we used to pay, that makes our life better. So we are happy to shop at a store that buys its goods from developing nations paying low labor costs and saving us money. Corporate managers have to grow businesses and increase profitability. Off-shoring of jobs and fragmentation of the production chain creates significant savings. Cost savings mean greater profits. Greater profits mean dividends to shareholders. Those shareholders are your pension funds and you demand that the fund managers to get a good return on your pension contributions.
These are the requirements of life and they drive us to decide to take jobs in sweatshops or buy the cheapest products available. This is how and why we all support globalization intentionally or not.
Businesses are run by people who desire a better life so they seek greater profits and opportunities abroad to make money. This is the simple quest for money. Money is the all purpose goal because we can buy anything we want. There are few things we desire that are not easily or more easily satisfied by having lots of money. We globalize because we can make more money and satisfy our desires.
Corporations and nations are attached to their success and way of life. They seek to be and stay number one in their industry. The USA wants to forever be the greatest nation on earth. The Russians want to reclaim their status as the world’s greatest people. The Chinese want to be the greatest civilization on earth. We are attached to our self view. We are attached to the pecking order of nations and peoples.
So we use our domestic governance to shape the international organizations so that we gain or maintain competitive advantage. And in those international negotiations the nations who get their way are the ones who have the ability to control their needs and exploit the needs of the others. They are considered powerful.
The one who needs the most compromises first and hence gets the smaller piece of the pie.
Needs and abilities.
Globalization, like power, is an observable phenomenon resulting from the requirements, desires and attachments of the people of this planet. Those who act on the needs of others get to shape its appearance. We consent to globalization like we consent to democracy – because it seems to fill our needs.
Law is obviously a mechanism of power. When you have it on your side, you can have serious impact.
More significantly for me this year has been applying the power analysis to many of the concepts I have been learning and relearning.
This past weekend I took a three day intensive course on Globalization and Global Systems.
There were about 20 people in the class.
Nine women and eleven men. They were from China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, France, Nigeria, Bosnia (former Yugoslavia), Ukraine (former Soviet Union), USA, central Canada, eastern Canada and French Canada. Most have either lived and/or been educated out side of Canada. Most were lawyers but there were three accountants, two economists and an entrepreneur. The lawyers were employed in areas of securities regulation, advertising law, general business practice, international trade, health law and me in education and not practicing. Three people worked for government agencies. Three people worked for banks. Two are simply pursuing higher education. Education level ranged from a single bachelors degree to advanced degrees in math, economics, law and health. Probably a total of 40 different degrees in the room. Six of them have lived in Canada five years or less. Two for less than a year. Two don’t live in Canada. Not everyone was heterosexual. Age range was about 26 to about 60.
The primary instructor is a lawyer with a doctorate in International Law and who practices in the area. The second instructor was the deputy chief economist for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. They were great.
All students were very quiet and cautious. In discussions few strong ideas came out.
We did not get too political though there were critical comments. Most such comments were by Canadians about Canada. Others were about the merits – or lack of merit – in Foreign Aid.
The discussion focused on the forces which drive globalization like innovation, trade and market opportunity; the economics of globalization like currency exchange and deficits; and the regulatory and management oriented world based organizations which impact globalization like the WTO, IMF and World Bank.
We did not talk about terrorism.
I did not hear the word greed even once.
Only once did anyone get emotional.
These last three items were a surprise to me.
I had a great time, met some very smart, enjoyable and interesting people and learned where the gaps in my knowledge are. It was a good experience.
Globalization was defined as the integration of national economies through trade, the movement of labor, capital and technology, multinational corporations, global value supply chains and global money markets.
Our instructor defined it as the pressure for change within a society and the anxiety produced by such change.
The first definition is an observation that offers little explanation as to why it is happening. The second offers insight into why it is happening and why the world is reacting.
I think, from my opinion, the second one is a closer description of the process.
I offer this – globalization is the expanding of economic and political processes from a national to an international orientation driven by the needs and desires of the people living in underdeveloped nations aligning with the ever expanding need for profit by the corporations of the developed world. This process is made possible by the technological innovation in communication and transportation and is facilitated by the domestic governments of the world surrendering aspects of their sovereignty to international organizations.
It is being done on the recommendation of economists who see growth and efficiency as the central and highest of goals.
Yes I think you see it coming. Here comes the power analysis again.
Needs, abilities and choice - that is the power equation. Choices are being made because of the power in need.
One thing is very clear to me as a 46 year old educated white male living in the most affluent society the world has ever seen – we have a fabulous life.
The average person in Canada, the USA and the EU enjoys the kind of long, leisurely, healthy, comfortable, abundant, luxurious and lavish lifestyles that were only enjoyed by kings and queens as little as one hundred years ago.
Millions of people who live every where else would do anything just to become one of our poor.
I can’t say we are any happier. I can’t say we are better people because of this. But I can say that our economic system has resulted in the most comfortable life a commoner has ever enjoyed in history.
People in the developing world want the chance at this life. They witness it in the media that serve the globe. They desire the lifestyle we take for granted.
As people they seek anything that may bring them a little more than they had yesterday. Like a worker who takes a couple of hours of overtime. Or a shopper that seeks out a good deal. They will do what they have to make their life a little better than it was a moment ago. They will take a sweatshop job over no job. They will compromise their health for a chance to feed their children regularly. They would rather break their back in a factory than lie on it as a whore. They want to make their life better and a job in a sweatshop is better than what they had yesterday.
They want a better life.
So do we.
We seek out ways to save money and make our paycheck go further. We want more and better everything. If Wal-Mart can get us clothing for 25% less than we used to pay, that makes our life better. So we are happy to shop at a store that buys its goods from developing nations paying low labor costs and saving us money. Corporate managers have to grow businesses and increase profitability. Off-shoring of jobs and fragmentation of the production chain creates significant savings. Cost savings mean greater profits. Greater profits mean dividends to shareholders. Those shareholders are your pension funds and you demand that the fund managers to get a good return on your pension contributions.
These are the requirements of life and they drive us to decide to take jobs in sweatshops or buy the cheapest products available. This is how and why we all support globalization intentionally or not.
Businesses are run by people who desire a better life so they seek greater profits and opportunities abroad to make money. This is the simple quest for money. Money is the all purpose goal because we can buy anything we want. There are few things we desire that are not easily or more easily satisfied by having lots of money. We globalize because we can make more money and satisfy our desires.
Corporations and nations are attached to their success and way of life. They seek to be and stay number one in their industry. The USA wants to forever be the greatest nation on earth. The Russians want to reclaim their status as the world’s greatest people. The Chinese want to be the greatest civilization on earth. We are attached to our self view. We are attached to the pecking order of nations and peoples.
So we use our domestic governance to shape the international organizations so that we gain or maintain competitive advantage. And in those international negotiations the nations who get their way are the ones who have the ability to control their needs and exploit the needs of the others. They are considered powerful.
The one who needs the most compromises first and hence gets the smaller piece of the pie.
Needs and abilities.
Globalization, like power, is an observable phenomenon resulting from the requirements, desires and attachments of the people of this planet. Those who act on the needs of others get to shape its appearance. We consent to globalization like we consent to democracy – because it seems to fill our needs.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Habits, Changes, Family and Power
It is spring. And with spring comes both expected and unexpected changes into our household.
The winter semester has ended and my children are scheduled to return home from college and university. Bedrooms that have been vacant for eight months – other than a “visit” at Xmas - are now being used again. With the use of the bedroom comes a delightful package of meals, laundry, television and apparently unlimited access to a computer in Dad’s office to check your email whenever you feel the need. Even if Dad has to get started writing for the day. Good deal.
When two or more of such beloved offspring return home within the same short span one’s household experiences changes. Changes in routine. Changes in habits.
Habits. Do you realize how important habits are to you? How integral they are to daily survival. How significant they are to your ability to accomplish what little you can in a day?
We need habits.
Oops - I talked about needs – you can see where I am going now….can’t you?
But let me finish…
To add to the subtle yet considerable change, is the steady maturation of a teenage son who, though he has never stopped living with us in 16 years, has changed the way he lives with us - quite a bit. He now stays up after we are in bed – doing whatever it is he does. He insists on having his allowance before Friday night arrives. He comes home anytime before or after supper depending on when his friends eat supper. (Why they can’t go home when he has supper is one of my favorite questions.) He doesn’t ask for supper yet he is grateful when a plate is on the table just in case. Of course from time to time I scrape that plate into the waste because he didn’t show.
Of late, as the weather and his hormones have changed (Spring Fever – new girlfriend – super-hottie) he has decided that he wants – for the first time in 10 years of school - to pack his lunch.
As his parent I am thrilled to see him eat better. I am thrilled that he wants to be healthy. I am thrilled to see him stay at school during lunch and not be late for fourth period every day. Yet when he wants to leisurely make that lunch during the same morning time that I have used to make his little brother’s lunch everyday for the past 5 years – and he happens to use the last of the cold meat and the last of the cheese and the last of fruit snacks - you might see how my daily habits are… modified. And I must modify them as an exercise in improv – without warning and on the fly.
You might recognize an undertone of anger in my words.
Oops I said anger – now you must know what I am talking about.
So let me be clear – I love my kids. I love seeing my son be more responsible with his health and I love it when my son and daughter come home and hang out for a few days.
However, these changes in my life have crystallized a deep and powerful insight.
I love my habits. I need my habits. I am not very good at changing my habits without warning and I don’t like it when I do.
Of course because I understand how power works and I understand how to turn the power dynamic into depowerment, I see my need for habits as my weakness that makes me vulnerable to power.
Yes I am weak. My habit is to get up. Make coffee. Go wake up my nine year old son. Go to the kitchen make his lunch and my wife’s lunch. Pour the coffee. Take a coffee to my wife. Bring my son to the kitchen and make his breakfast. Go with my coffee to my office and begin my day’s writing.
So when my older son is in the kitchen inspired to make a lunch, I have to wait. When I pour the coffee and my daughter wants one too (luckily I made extra just in case) and she beats me to my computer – well my heart begins to feel a little frustrated anger.
And anger is a sign of power…
So the analysis ensues. What is my need? What is their need? What are my choices?
And I acquire a couple of lessons on power. First the obvious based on the analysis.
People need habits. They are essential. So they are a source of power. Anything that impacts those habits can be a mechanism of power.
Habits are about not making choices. Habits are about freeing us from having to make choices. Habits are choices already made. So interfering with habits has the effect of controlling or influencing our choices. It is simply because the regular choice can no longer be made.
Now the subtle.
Power does not have to be intentional.
Having your choices changed because of someone else is power. Power is not about the actor it is about the subject in everyway. It is about the subject because it is the subject’s choice that is impacted. It is about the subject because power is a feeling. It is an emotion in the subject that causes them to consider and make other choices than they would but for the power. Power is about the subject because what creates the power is the subject’s need. The actor’s ability, without the subject’s need, does not create power. So although many of us use power intentionally and can be very good at it most of the time, the truth is so much power is not used but arises nonetheless. All that matters is that the subject experienced it.
Power is an experience.
Now the most important…
There is no such thing as a relationship without power. To live in proximity to others means that there will be power. Because there will always be needs and there is no way to keep others from intentionally or unintentionally having an impact on those needs.
To love others is to willingly subject yourself to their power.
There are two things you can try to do in relationships that you want to have but seem to have too much power in them.
Learn to be flexible. Today my children unknowingly taught me about power. I had a choice. I could have turned it into a power dynamic or I could see it as power that was not planned and without malice. I could see it as some of the necessary power in my life. I could see it as a lesson. I could bend with the wind and become more flexible. Simple but not easy.
They don’t even know I was bothered - or that I am writing this.
The other solution is much harder…like flexibility isn’t hard enough.
Take your relationships beyond expectations and desires…
That might be true love.
Unfortunately I am no better at that one than any of you. I suffer with it every day. Like today. All I can offer you is what has been told to me and what I recognize as truth.
We must try to get outside the “self” we have created and be what we are in our essence.
Walking the path with all those we are intrinsically connected to.
I think they call that compassion.
The winter semester has ended and my children are scheduled to return home from college and university. Bedrooms that have been vacant for eight months – other than a “visit” at Xmas - are now being used again. With the use of the bedroom comes a delightful package of meals, laundry, television and apparently unlimited access to a computer in Dad’s office to check your email whenever you feel the need. Even if Dad has to get started writing for the day. Good deal.
When two or more of such beloved offspring return home within the same short span one’s household experiences changes. Changes in routine. Changes in habits.
Habits. Do you realize how important habits are to you? How integral they are to daily survival. How significant they are to your ability to accomplish what little you can in a day?
We need habits.
Oops - I talked about needs – you can see where I am going now….can’t you?
But let me finish…
To add to the subtle yet considerable change, is the steady maturation of a teenage son who, though he has never stopped living with us in 16 years, has changed the way he lives with us - quite a bit. He now stays up after we are in bed – doing whatever it is he does. He insists on having his allowance before Friday night arrives. He comes home anytime before or after supper depending on when his friends eat supper. (Why they can’t go home when he has supper is one of my favorite questions.) He doesn’t ask for supper yet he is grateful when a plate is on the table just in case. Of course from time to time I scrape that plate into the waste because he didn’t show.
Of late, as the weather and his hormones have changed (Spring Fever – new girlfriend – super-hottie) he has decided that he wants – for the first time in 10 years of school - to pack his lunch.
As his parent I am thrilled to see him eat better. I am thrilled that he wants to be healthy. I am thrilled to see him stay at school during lunch and not be late for fourth period every day. Yet when he wants to leisurely make that lunch during the same morning time that I have used to make his little brother’s lunch everyday for the past 5 years – and he happens to use the last of the cold meat and the last of the cheese and the last of fruit snacks - you might see how my daily habits are… modified. And I must modify them as an exercise in improv – without warning and on the fly.
You might recognize an undertone of anger in my words.
Oops I said anger – now you must know what I am talking about.
So let me be clear – I love my kids. I love seeing my son be more responsible with his health and I love it when my son and daughter come home and hang out for a few days.
However, these changes in my life have crystallized a deep and powerful insight.
I love my habits. I need my habits. I am not very good at changing my habits without warning and I don’t like it when I do.
Of course because I understand how power works and I understand how to turn the power dynamic into depowerment, I see my need for habits as my weakness that makes me vulnerable to power.
Yes I am weak. My habit is to get up. Make coffee. Go wake up my nine year old son. Go to the kitchen make his lunch and my wife’s lunch. Pour the coffee. Take a coffee to my wife. Bring my son to the kitchen and make his breakfast. Go with my coffee to my office and begin my day’s writing.
So when my older son is in the kitchen inspired to make a lunch, I have to wait. When I pour the coffee and my daughter wants one too (luckily I made extra just in case) and she beats me to my computer – well my heart begins to feel a little frustrated anger.
And anger is a sign of power…
So the analysis ensues. What is my need? What is their need? What are my choices?
And I acquire a couple of lessons on power. First the obvious based on the analysis.
People need habits. They are essential. So they are a source of power. Anything that impacts those habits can be a mechanism of power.
Habits are about not making choices. Habits are about freeing us from having to make choices. Habits are choices already made. So interfering with habits has the effect of controlling or influencing our choices. It is simply because the regular choice can no longer be made.
Now the subtle.
Power does not have to be intentional.
Having your choices changed because of someone else is power. Power is not about the actor it is about the subject in everyway. It is about the subject because it is the subject’s choice that is impacted. It is about the subject because power is a feeling. It is an emotion in the subject that causes them to consider and make other choices than they would but for the power. Power is about the subject because what creates the power is the subject’s need. The actor’s ability, without the subject’s need, does not create power. So although many of us use power intentionally and can be very good at it most of the time, the truth is so much power is not used but arises nonetheless. All that matters is that the subject experienced it.
Power is an experience.
Now the most important…
There is no such thing as a relationship without power. To live in proximity to others means that there will be power. Because there will always be needs and there is no way to keep others from intentionally or unintentionally having an impact on those needs.
To love others is to willingly subject yourself to their power.
There are two things you can try to do in relationships that you want to have but seem to have too much power in them.
Learn to be flexible. Today my children unknowingly taught me about power. I had a choice. I could have turned it into a power dynamic or I could see it as power that was not planned and without malice. I could see it as some of the necessary power in my life. I could see it as a lesson. I could bend with the wind and become more flexible. Simple but not easy.
They don’t even know I was bothered - or that I am writing this.
The other solution is much harder…like flexibility isn’t hard enough.
Take your relationships beyond expectations and desires…
That might be true love.
Unfortunately I am no better at that one than any of you. I suffer with it every day. Like today. All I can offer you is what has been told to me and what I recognize as truth.
We must try to get outside the “self” we have created and be what we are in our essence.
Walking the path with all those we are intrinsically connected to.
I think they call that compassion.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
If you are reading this....
I would love to have your thoughts or comments. Just click "Comment" below and let me know. Or visit onhavingpower.com and send me an email...
Thanks
Les
Thanks
Les
The pursuit of power
Inside me is a little man. A little man who drives this bus but does not know where it is going. He wants to the in charge. He wants to be a great bus driver. But he is not. He cannot be a great bus driver because he hasn’t the slightest clue where he is headed. Yes he can keep the bus on the road. He follows all the rules and he doesn’t crash into things – unless he wants to. Sometimes he wants to. He wants to because he wants people to notice what a great bus driver he is.
He has many habits that are upsetting. When he finds another bus driver on the road he tends to consider them inferior. Not because they are. But because he sees himself as inferior and needs someone to be below him. He can’t stand the thought that he’s the worst. Of course he doesn’t realize that there are no great or terrible bus drivers. They are all the same. They just drive the bus. They don’t get to decide where it is going. They don’t get to decide what is important. They just drive.
The bus driver wants to think that his bus is bigger and better than all the others. No, as you would expect, it is not. His bus is so similar to all the other buses that it is hard to tell one from another. Even if one has a bigger tank or another has more seats, they are all just buses. They are just Buses. That is good enough. But he doesn’t think so. And that is what pushes him to pretend.
The bus driver thinks that since they do all this driving that they should be able to decide the rules of the road and who should cover which routes. But he is just a bus driver like all the others who together cover all the routes necessary. Because he doesn’t see all the routes or all the other drivers he thinks that there are problems. He likes to criticize. He likes to find fault. But he doesn’t see the combination of the whole so he can’t see how he is wrong. The only real problem is that he doesn’t see the whole route map or all the other buses. If he did he would know there are no routes uncovered. And everyone has all they need. Yet he sits behind his wheel complaining and telling those on his bus how the bus system is inadequate.
Silly guy.
When he comes to a four way stop he always thinks he is the only one who knows what to do. The other drivers are treated like they are stupid. He makes the rules up and then thinks that they are the best. Then he uses his simple idea to judge the merits of the other bus drivers at the stop. He doesn’t realize that the stop is there for a reason. And that reason is accomplished by the fact that everyone stops. The important word here is not rules. It is stop. Too bad the bus driver doesn’t get it.
The roads are all connected. The routes all come together. The needs are all taken care of. There is lots of gas for everyone. There are enough routes that we can go anywhere.
I wish the bus driver would just drive the bus.
This is how I see people and their pursuit of power. I wish we would all just drive our bus.
He has many habits that are upsetting. When he finds another bus driver on the road he tends to consider them inferior. Not because they are. But because he sees himself as inferior and needs someone to be below him. He can’t stand the thought that he’s the worst. Of course he doesn’t realize that there are no great or terrible bus drivers. They are all the same. They just drive the bus. They don’t get to decide where it is going. They don’t get to decide what is important. They just drive.
The bus driver wants to think that his bus is bigger and better than all the others. No, as you would expect, it is not. His bus is so similar to all the other buses that it is hard to tell one from another. Even if one has a bigger tank or another has more seats, they are all just buses. They are just Buses. That is good enough. But he doesn’t think so. And that is what pushes him to pretend.
The bus driver thinks that since they do all this driving that they should be able to decide the rules of the road and who should cover which routes. But he is just a bus driver like all the others who together cover all the routes necessary. Because he doesn’t see all the routes or all the other drivers he thinks that there are problems. He likes to criticize. He likes to find fault. But he doesn’t see the combination of the whole so he can’t see how he is wrong. The only real problem is that he doesn’t see the whole route map or all the other buses. If he did he would know there are no routes uncovered. And everyone has all they need. Yet he sits behind his wheel complaining and telling those on his bus how the bus system is inadequate.
Silly guy.
When he comes to a four way stop he always thinks he is the only one who knows what to do. The other drivers are treated like they are stupid. He makes the rules up and then thinks that they are the best. Then he uses his simple idea to judge the merits of the other bus drivers at the stop. He doesn’t realize that the stop is there for a reason. And that reason is accomplished by the fact that everyone stops. The important word here is not rules. It is stop. Too bad the bus driver doesn’t get it.
The roads are all connected. The routes all come together. The needs are all taken care of. There is lots of gas for everyone. There are enough routes that we can go anywhere.
I wish the bus driver would just drive the bus.
This is how I see people and their pursuit of power. I wish we would all just drive our bus.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
The first secret of power
I was looking for this quote from Herodotus –
“Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.”
When I found this one…
“Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.”
And this one…
“Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.”
The truth is as old as the hills. We have known the truth about power forever. However, very few have known how to use it. Fewer have the ability necessary to use it. That ability is self control. This is a truly important secret.
Understanding cause and effect is the only way to understand power. It is a bit of a paradox that the first lesson in power is that we control nothing. Control is an illusion. But without that lesson we continue in our search for power by looking at powerful people thinking that they have some ability to control others. Some ability we need to attain. Some ability that we never seem to understand much less possess.
But when you accept, this obviously ancient truth, that control does not exist, then you begin to see the process that creates power. The process of self control.
The only thing you control is what you do right now. The only thing you control is how you respond to the circumstances before you. That is how powerful people have power. They control their response. They control their response to the people around them. They give them what they want. They promise what they want. They tell them what they want to hear. There actions are a response to the people they want to have some control or influence over.
Nothing else can be controlled. The rest is the effect of all the causes and conditions that have culminated in the result you see and hear. As Herodotus said, we do not control circumstances. But we will control ourselves within them, and use them, and thus appear to HAVE power.
It’s just an illusion.
“Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.”
When I found this one…
“Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.”
And this one…
“Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.”
The truth is as old as the hills. We have known the truth about power forever. However, very few have known how to use it. Fewer have the ability necessary to use it. That ability is self control. This is a truly important secret.
Understanding cause and effect is the only way to understand power. It is a bit of a paradox that the first lesson in power is that we control nothing. Control is an illusion. But without that lesson we continue in our search for power by looking at powerful people thinking that they have some ability to control others. Some ability we need to attain. Some ability that we never seem to understand much less possess.
But when you accept, this obviously ancient truth, that control does not exist, then you begin to see the process that creates power. The process of self control.
The only thing you control is what you do right now. The only thing you control is how you respond to the circumstances before you. That is how powerful people have power. They control their response. They control their response to the people around them. They give them what they want. They promise what they want. They tell them what they want to hear. There actions are a response to the people they want to have some control or influence over.
Nothing else can be controlled. The rest is the effect of all the causes and conditions that have culminated in the result you see and hear. As Herodotus said, we do not control circumstances. But we will control ourselves within them, and use them, and thus appear to HAVE power.
It’s just an illusion.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Self
Power is the thing that feeds the self.
It is what delivers that intoxicating sense that you are right and the world is wrong. It creates an overbearing distinct individuality. It is the source and rresult of all conflict. conflict we create to create an illusion. The illusion is that we are more important than all others
We want power because it separates us from each other.
More important though is the fact that it turns those we are living with into the tools we use to obtain our desires. People become a means rather than an end.
When you understand that power does not work without need. Then you see that power is the exploitation of others needs to obtain what we want to build our self. To endorse and create an individual being above all others.
How can we see power as good when it only works because we reduce others to objects we use for our satisfaction? Power turns people into things.
It doesn't matter if you use it for good. It fundamentally reflects a lack of understanding of the nature of our reality.
It is what delivers that intoxicating sense that you are right and the world is wrong. It creates an overbearing distinct individuality. It is the source and rresult of all conflict. conflict we create to create an illusion. The illusion is that we are more important than all others
We want power because it separates us from each other.
More important though is the fact that it turns those we are living with into the tools we use to obtain our desires. People become a means rather than an end.
When you understand that power does not work without need. Then you see that power is the exploitation of others needs to obtain what we want to build our self. To endorse and create an individual being above all others.
How can we see power as good when it only works because we reduce others to objects we use for our satisfaction? Power turns people into things.
It doesn't matter if you use it for good. It fundamentally reflects a lack of understanding of the nature of our reality.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Parable on Power
Whenever I find myself thinking that power can be a good thing or that having power may be a good strategy, I remember two things...
First - once power is in play it is hard to control.
Second - I will always have needs, so there will always be someone with more power.
Here is an old fable about a Deer and a Tiger and a man with the power to kill.
The mountains were splendid.
But Wu Tang didn't care a whit for scenery.
He and his son spent a lot of time hunting in these mountains. Wu Tang was a dead shot with his bow and arrow. He never missed. He was such a good shot that he barely had to aim. He just picked a target, pulled his bow, and shot it down. No animal was quick enough or agile enough to escape his arrows.
"Look, over there, a little fawn!"
A little fawn must be one of the most adorable animals in nature, but Wu Tang wasn't in the mountains to admire nature. As soon as he spotted it, he whipped an arrow out of his quiver and zoom! The fawn fell over dead.
Then Wu noticed its mother a few feet away in the grass. He couldn't get a good shot at her from his angle, so he waited.
She was terribly sad about her little baby! She let out a cry as she started licking her baby's wounds. Just as she was concentrating on that, Wu pulled off a quick shot and the mother deer died on the spot.
But that wasn't enough for Wu.
He thought there might be more deer in the area, because he heard something rustling around in the grass. There was at least one more in there, maybe two.
"Three deer is better than two," he thought, as he prepared.
Then he located the source of the sound and shot at a shadow in the grass. He was proud to hear the sound of another dead body falling to the ground, but his pride turned to anguish when he heard a groan!
"Deer don't groan like that! That was a human voice!"
Wu rushed over and saw that his third shot had killed not a deer, but his own son, who had come out hunting with him!
Wu was stupefied. He seemed to hear a voice telling him, "Wu Tang! Now do you now what it is like to see your baby shot to death with an arrow? Animals love their young as much as you do. How much anguish have you caused animal parents!"
Wu stood there, numb, too heartbroken to pay attention to a sound that came from the side.
Then in a flash he realized that the other animal he had heard in the grass was not a deer, but a tiger! But he was too late ...
First - once power is in play it is hard to control.
Second - I will always have needs, so there will always be someone with more power.
Here is an old fable about a Deer and a Tiger and a man with the power to kill.
The mountains were splendid.
But Wu Tang didn't care a whit for scenery.
He and his son spent a lot of time hunting in these mountains. Wu Tang was a dead shot with his bow and arrow. He never missed. He was such a good shot that he barely had to aim. He just picked a target, pulled his bow, and shot it down. No animal was quick enough or agile enough to escape his arrows.
"Look, over there, a little fawn!"
A little fawn must be one of the most adorable animals in nature, but Wu Tang wasn't in the mountains to admire nature. As soon as he spotted it, he whipped an arrow out of his quiver and zoom! The fawn fell over dead.
Then Wu noticed its mother a few feet away in the grass. He couldn't get a good shot at her from his angle, so he waited.
She was terribly sad about her little baby! She let out a cry as she started licking her baby's wounds. Just as she was concentrating on that, Wu pulled off a quick shot and the mother deer died on the spot.
But that wasn't enough for Wu.
He thought there might be more deer in the area, because he heard something rustling around in the grass. There was at least one more in there, maybe two.
"Three deer is better than two," he thought, as he prepared.
Then he located the source of the sound and shot at a shadow in the grass. He was proud to hear the sound of another dead body falling to the ground, but his pride turned to anguish when he heard a groan!
"Deer don't groan like that! That was a human voice!"
Wu rushed over and saw that his third shot had killed not a deer, but his own son, who had come out hunting with him!
Wu was stupefied. He seemed to hear a voice telling him, "Wu Tang! Now do you now what it is like to see your baby shot to death with an arrow? Animals love their young as much as you do. How much anguish have you caused animal parents!"
Wu stood there, numb, too heartbroken to pay attention to a sound that came from the side.
Then in a flash he realized that the other animal he had heard in the grass was not a deer, but a tiger! But he was too late ...
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Think of the power...
http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/investing/insight/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3313995
The next big book I hope to write is one which explains how the needs and abilities analysis of power can lead to a revolution in our society.
We live in a free market. And that theme will go down in history as defining this age. The pursuit of wealth is the central purpose behind the actions of most people within this age.
The pursuit of wealth is nothing more than the pursuit of power. We seek money not because the stuff smells nice or looks wonderful hanging on the wall. We seek it because it provides us with the ability to satisfy all of our desires.
(Note I said desires not needs. We don't really even know what we need. We are only just discovering that.)
However behind this massive world wide quest for money is the greatest opportunity for power that has ever existed.
You can see the potential when you consider that CEO's around the world have become so concerned about what customers think of their companies that they are starting up committees to address global warming.
In a more traditional view of business - a la Freidman - these guys really have no right to be spending shareholder profits on such endeavours.
However we live in a marketplace of high competition and low margins. Every sale matters and when people tell corporate executives that the "personality" of a brand includes its behaviour vis. social matters like the environment and philanthropy, they sit up and listen.
The truth is they want your money so badly they will do what ever you demand to get it.
If corporations will rule the world and traditional democracy will die, then we can actively - deliberately re-create democracy with our spending. We don't have to cast a ballot in an election. We simply have to use our ability to buy the competitiors' products to trigger the power in the need of corporations.
They want money so bad we have endless power.
So use it....
The next big book I hope to write is one which explains how the needs and abilities analysis of power can lead to a revolution in our society.
We live in a free market. And that theme will go down in history as defining this age. The pursuit of wealth is the central purpose behind the actions of most people within this age.
The pursuit of wealth is nothing more than the pursuit of power. We seek money not because the stuff smells nice or looks wonderful hanging on the wall. We seek it because it provides us with the ability to satisfy all of our desires.
(Note I said desires not needs. We don't really even know what we need. We are only just discovering that.)
However behind this massive world wide quest for money is the greatest opportunity for power that has ever existed.
You can see the potential when you consider that CEO's around the world have become so concerned about what customers think of their companies that they are starting up committees to address global warming.
In a more traditional view of business - a la Freidman - these guys really have no right to be spending shareholder profits on such endeavours.
However we live in a marketplace of high competition and low margins. Every sale matters and when people tell corporate executives that the "personality" of a brand includes its behaviour vis. social matters like the environment and philanthropy, they sit up and listen.
The truth is they want your money so badly they will do what ever you demand to get it.
If corporations will rule the world and traditional democracy will die, then we can actively - deliberately re-create democracy with our spending. We don't have to cast a ballot in an election. We simply have to use our ability to buy the competitiors' products to trigger the power in the need of corporations.
They want money so bad we have endless power.
So use it....
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
surfing....
Just a little thought I saw as I was surfing zaadz...
Power has limits...and it has problems.
But I guess we all know that.
Later
http://books.zaadz.com/
Source: Thomas Merton: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series), Page: 130 Contributed by: Bob Royal. Thomas Merton said
For power can guarantee the interests of some men but it can never foster the good of man. Power always protects the good of some at the expense of all the others. Only love can attain and preserve the good of all. Any claim to build the security of all on force is a manifest imposture.
Power has limits...and it has problems.
But I guess we all know that.
Later
http://books.zaadz.com/
Source: Thomas Merton: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series), Page: 130 Contributed by: Bob Royal. Thomas Merton said
For power can guarantee the interests of some men but it can never foster the good of man. Power always protects the good of some at the expense of all the others. Only love can attain and preserve the good of all. Any claim to build the security of all on force is a manifest imposture.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Herein lies the secret...
The more I think and learn about power the more this is true.
Those who know me, know I love this one.
I hope you find secrets in it.
Later….
33
Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
If you realize that you have enough,
you are truly rich.
If you stay in the center
and embrace death with your whole heart,
you will endure forever.
Tao Te Ching as Translated by Stephen Mitchel
Those who know me, know I love this one.
I hope you find secrets in it.
Later….
33
Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
If you realize that you have enough,
you are truly rich.
If you stay in the center
and embrace death with your whole heart,
you will endure forever.
Tao Te Ching as Translated by Stephen Mitchel
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
A beautiful day in Brockville
I had a great day in Brockville yesterday. I met some wonderful community people who genuinely want to make life in their region happier for the younger of us. I met teachers that still have passion and compassion for their students. I met young people who are asking the great questions and looking at their world with healthy hope and desire.
It was my pleasure to be there.
Please allow me a little ramble of thoughts stimulated by our time together.
The thing that seduces me into teaching is the flash of joy that young people exhibit from time to time when they are breaking through into new thoughts. As people, they are still in “discovery mode.” Although they have come a long way since infancy, there remain sophistications that adult living and adult responsibilities will eventually impose upon them but as yet they are free from. Until then there is an expectation that life will bring them all the things they dream. There is an acknowledgment that they don’t yet know it all - and that they want to.
They absorb information. It passes through a less refined machine that is not designed to keep them safe (as it becomes when we age) but designed to help them grow. Make no mistake they don’t just accept everything people say to them. There is nothing gullible about them. They simply have a great combination of openness and skepticism. They still use emotion in combination with intellect. Because they come to the circumstance with the expectation that they will learn, they consider before they assimilate or discard.
Hence I have always found it easy to teach the concepts of power to younger audiences. I love teaching the course at Fleming.
Adults on the other hand have well established views on power and its place in their lives. When I speak to adults I find I have to persuade rather then reveal.
It has been my experience both as a teacher of adults, and also as a learner now back in school, that we tend to receive information in a closed way. We have constructed an impenetrable wall that has doors. We will not let anything new in unless it completely fits the way they want to see the world. If so we will open the door and let it in.
There is no longer a sense of discovery or joy in our learning.
It is more like fear.
Maybe it’s just that feeling of power we know so well. We understand that new information impacts the choices we make and we have become very anxious about change and very reliant on habits. Habits in our daily lives because it is the only way to survive the day and complete everything that must be done. Habits in our relationships because they are comfortable even when they are unhappy. Habits in our thinking because to change our views hurts our self image.
When adults open themselves up to new ideas they think they have to decide right then and there if what they are being presented with is “true or false.”
If it is false it must be rejected out of hand for risk that it will pollute their world view. The filter we use to determine such veracity is one of emotion - whether or not it makes us uncomfortable. If it causes us to question too many things we hold as “true” it is simply too much work. If we have to reevaluate too many of our views, we will cling to what we already have and go about making the same mistakes and wondering why nothing changes.
On the other hand when we see something that looks like truth, we think we have to immediately find some way to embody it. We are compelled to make it real in our lives. For although we resist, we still yearn for truth. We want to live truth.
This all or nothing approach often leaves us out in the cold when it comes to understanding power. We cling to the myths of power because they make us comfortable.
The thought that our relationships are full of power is upsetting.
The thought that we use power everyday as a parent, friend, employee, or spouse challenges our moral judgment of ourselves.
The idea that power is a methodology based on the exploitation of another person’s need, and available to all people, flies in the face of our life-long rationalization that power is OK. In fact, maybe it’s even a worthwhile pursuit.
Teachers like me, are particularly upset when you remind us that our lives are all about authoritative power imposed on children and parents by our laws. It is the “necessary” socialization of an individual. It is the training required to fit in. Otherwise you don’t belong.
Sometimes we forget that it is all about love.
When we come to the education power dynamic with a predominant intention based in love…well…then it doesn’t feel like power does it?
Maybe it isn’t…
Is power a good or bad thing? Well a better question is, can we live without power?
A better question yet is what is the opposite of power?
Compassion – when a teacher comes to the table with compassion they are not using their ability to control and exploit the needs of a young person to attain some end. They are simply there to help address those needs without any desire to affect own personal needs.
We didn’t get to talk about this yesterday. Power always has two sides - two dynamics. One with the Subjects needs in play – and since we don’t use power unless we need something – a dynamic with the Actors needs in play. It’s is how kids seem to be able to turn the tables in places like grocery store isles.
Nonetheless I think power has to have two sides to be power. When you drop your side of the bipolar dynamic – it is no longer power. It is compassion.
I saw a lot of compassion yesterday. It made me feel wonderful about the city of Brockville.
It was my pleasure to be there.
Please allow me a little ramble of thoughts stimulated by our time together.
The thing that seduces me into teaching is the flash of joy that young people exhibit from time to time when they are breaking through into new thoughts. As people, they are still in “discovery mode.” Although they have come a long way since infancy, there remain sophistications that adult living and adult responsibilities will eventually impose upon them but as yet they are free from. Until then there is an expectation that life will bring them all the things they dream. There is an acknowledgment that they don’t yet know it all - and that they want to.
They absorb information. It passes through a less refined machine that is not designed to keep them safe (as it becomes when we age) but designed to help them grow. Make no mistake they don’t just accept everything people say to them. There is nothing gullible about them. They simply have a great combination of openness and skepticism. They still use emotion in combination with intellect. Because they come to the circumstance with the expectation that they will learn, they consider before they assimilate or discard.
Hence I have always found it easy to teach the concepts of power to younger audiences. I love teaching the course at Fleming.
Adults on the other hand have well established views on power and its place in their lives. When I speak to adults I find I have to persuade rather then reveal.
It has been my experience both as a teacher of adults, and also as a learner now back in school, that we tend to receive information in a closed way. We have constructed an impenetrable wall that has doors. We will not let anything new in unless it completely fits the way they want to see the world. If so we will open the door and let it in.
There is no longer a sense of discovery or joy in our learning.
It is more like fear.
Maybe it’s just that feeling of power we know so well. We understand that new information impacts the choices we make and we have become very anxious about change and very reliant on habits. Habits in our daily lives because it is the only way to survive the day and complete everything that must be done. Habits in our relationships because they are comfortable even when they are unhappy. Habits in our thinking because to change our views hurts our self image.
When adults open themselves up to new ideas they think they have to decide right then and there if what they are being presented with is “true or false.”
If it is false it must be rejected out of hand for risk that it will pollute their world view. The filter we use to determine such veracity is one of emotion - whether or not it makes us uncomfortable. If it causes us to question too many things we hold as “true” it is simply too much work. If we have to reevaluate too many of our views, we will cling to what we already have and go about making the same mistakes and wondering why nothing changes.
On the other hand when we see something that looks like truth, we think we have to immediately find some way to embody it. We are compelled to make it real in our lives. For although we resist, we still yearn for truth. We want to live truth.
This all or nothing approach often leaves us out in the cold when it comes to understanding power. We cling to the myths of power because they make us comfortable.
The thought that our relationships are full of power is upsetting.
The thought that we use power everyday as a parent, friend, employee, or spouse challenges our moral judgment of ourselves.
The idea that power is a methodology based on the exploitation of another person’s need, and available to all people, flies in the face of our life-long rationalization that power is OK. In fact, maybe it’s even a worthwhile pursuit.
Teachers like me, are particularly upset when you remind us that our lives are all about authoritative power imposed on children and parents by our laws. It is the “necessary” socialization of an individual. It is the training required to fit in. Otherwise you don’t belong.
Sometimes we forget that it is all about love.
When we come to the education power dynamic with a predominant intention based in love…well…then it doesn’t feel like power does it?
Maybe it isn’t…
Is power a good or bad thing? Well a better question is, can we live without power?
A better question yet is what is the opposite of power?
Compassion – when a teacher comes to the table with compassion they are not using their ability to control and exploit the needs of a young person to attain some end. They are simply there to help address those needs without any desire to affect own personal needs.
We didn’t get to talk about this yesterday. Power always has two sides - two dynamics. One with the Subjects needs in play – and since we don’t use power unless we need something – a dynamic with the Actors needs in play. It’s is how kids seem to be able to turn the tables in places like grocery store isles.
Nonetheless I think power has to have two sides to be power. When you drop your side of the bipolar dynamic – it is no longer power. It is compassion.
I saw a lot of compassion yesterday. It made me feel wonderful about the city of Brockville.
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Art of Getting Homework Done
I was reading the Art of War today.
It is so simple and yet with every group of people I speak to, they seem to miss it.
The one who would overcome the other does not force their way but uses the weaknesses of the other to succeed. It allows reality. It uses reality. It does not fight it.
My son has been having some difficulty at school.
He finds so much of what he has to do in class to be virtually pointless. He says, “It’s stupid. I don’t need to do it. I won’t do it. I can’t do it.”
I tell him he is fighting what is.
He thinks that by refusing to do it and then being very difficult about it – arguing, crying, ignoring, avoiding - he wins. His teacher gives up. His mother gives up. His father gives up and then he doesn’t have to do it.
He sees the battle as victorious but he loses sight of the war.
Last night I accepted Sun Tzu’s, Lao Tzu’s and Chang Tzu’s words.
I said, “Ok. Don’t do it. I guess you get to do grade three twice. They won’t let you out of grade three if you can’t do these things. I am finished fighting with you. I just want us both to be happy.”
I walked away and he began to work.
Water flows downhill and power is about needs.
Sun Tzu – The Art of War – Chapter VITranslated from the Chinese with Introduction and Critical Notes BY LIONEL GILES, M.A. Assistant in the Department of Oriental Printed Books and MSS. in the British Museum First Published in 1910
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/132/132.txt
29. Military tactics are like unto water; for water in itsnatural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.30. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and tostrike at what is weak. [Like water, taking the line of least resistance.] 31. Water shapes its course according to the nature of theground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory inrelation to the foe whom he is facing.32. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, soin warfare there are no constant conditions.33. He who can modify his tactics in relation to hisopponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.34. The five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth) arenot always equally predominant; [That is, as Wang Hsi says: "they predominatealternately."]the four seasons make way for each other in turn. [Literally, "have no invariable seat."]There are short days and long; the moon has its periods of waningand waxing.
It is so simple and yet with every group of people I speak to, they seem to miss it.
The one who would overcome the other does not force their way but uses the weaknesses of the other to succeed. It allows reality. It uses reality. It does not fight it.
My son has been having some difficulty at school.
He finds so much of what he has to do in class to be virtually pointless. He says, “It’s stupid. I don’t need to do it. I won’t do it. I can’t do it.”
I tell him he is fighting what is.
He thinks that by refusing to do it and then being very difficult about it – arguing, crying, ignoring, avoiding - he wins. His teacher gives up. His mother gives up. His father gives up and then he doesn’t have to do it.
He sees the battle as victorious but he loses sight of the war.
Last night I accepted Sun Tzu’s, Lao Tzu’s and Chang Tzu’s words.
I said, “Ok. Don’t do it. I guess you get to do grade three twice. They won’t let you out of grade three if you can’t do these things. I am finished fighting with you. I just want us both to be happy.”
I walked away and he began to work.
Water flows downhill and power is about needs.
Sun Tzu – The Art of War – Chapter VITranslated from the Chinese with Introduction and Critical Notes BY LIONEL GILES, M.A. Assistant in the Department of Oriental Printed Books and MSS. in the British Museum First Published in 1910
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/132/132.txt
29. Military tactics are like unto water; for water in itsnatural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.30. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and tostrike at what is weak. [Like water, taking the line of least resistance.] 31. Water shapes its course according to the nature of theground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory inrelation to the foe whom he is facing.32. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, soin warfare there are no constant conditions.33. He who can modify his tactics in relation to hisopponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.34. The five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth) arenot always equally predominant; [That is, as Wang Hsi says: "they predominatealternately."]the four seasons make way for each other in turn. [Literally, "have no invariable seat."]There are short days and long; the moon has its periods of waningand waxing.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Things the Tao taught me....
Everyday people seek power.
I don’t know why.
They want the ability to control others. They want the ability to ensure they get what they want. They like the feeling of dominating others - even if they are strangers.
They see it as control. They pursue the mastery of the world around them.
If they ever become good at power they learn that the best way to have it is to control their own self enough to be able to access the needs of others. It is in controlling their response to others needs and desires that they create power.
Eventually, power fails. It always has a limit. Power seekers run head-long into the limit and then, lying the ruin of their plans, they wonder why.
Why?
Because control is an illusion.
The only thing they really controlled was how they responded to the situation before them.
Mastery of the world comes not from an ever growing realm of control. It comes from the absolute ability to control the self.
Not only is that the place of true power, it is also the beginning of true freedom.
Later…
I don’t know why.
They want the ability to control others. They want the ability to ensure they get what they want. They like the feeling of dominating others - even if they are strangers.
They see it as control. They pursue the mastery of the world around them.
If they ever become good at power they learn that the best way to have it is to control their own self enough to be able to access the needs of others. It is in controlling their response to others needs and desires that they create power.
Eventually, power fails. It always has a limit. Power seekers run head-long into the limit and then, lying the ruin of their plans, they wonder why.
Why?
Because control is an illusion.
The only thing they really controlled was how they responded to the situation before them.
Mastery of the world comes not from an ever growing realm of control. It comes from the absolute ability to control the self.
Not only is that the place of true power, it is also the beginning of true freedom.
Later…
Monday, February 19, 2007
Fear
Like anger and excitement, I have suggested that fear is an emotional feeling of power. If you are feeling afraid then someone is using power over you.
Simply you have a need and someone has the ability to either help you with that need or inhibit your ability to satisfy that need. The need is the thing that has the fear in it. It is the thing that holds the power. It is not the ability that holds the power.
Historically and somewhat naturally we think that the power is in the ability to affect the need. But if the need is small enough then there is little power to trigger.
Identifying power with a thing, or ability to use a thing, is one of those misdirecting myths about power.
I get a regular newsletter from Denny Hatch - a direct marketing/PR writer and speaker. He gives examples of good or bad marketing and offers explanation and analysis.
Like so many newsletters and emails we get they are about promoting the interests of the sender. The idea is to show you how that vendor can solve your need, or has insight that you don’t have. It plays on your need and offers an ability to solve it.
That is what marketing is – deliberate attempts at power. The deliberate attempt to stimulate the motivating power in your needs by offering an ability and thus controlling or influencing a choice.
It’s a kind of poetic layering that Denny uses his often insightful analysis of others attempts at power as a platform to use his power and thus impact choice.
Add to that the layers of power you can find in the actual story. Using a recent newspaper article, he tells us about people who use fear in their marketing - because it works.
I know when these kinds of ads and PR techniques are used, regardless of customer response, the result always includes an element of mistrust.
Power destroys trust. When someone uses your fear to get you to do what they want you to do - although you may be willing to do it to alleviate your fear - in the end, you don’t really like the person who influenced you that way.
Yes it works. Power works from time to time. Big surprise…
But now I ask you – how do you feel about it?
Below is the copy of Denny’s newsletter from last week.
Enjoy the power analysis.
Moves to Vaccinate Girls for Cervical Cancer Draw FireAs Merck Lobbies States To Require Shots,Some Fret Over Side Effects, MoralsBills being drafted in some 20 U.S. states that would make a cervical-cancer vaccine mandatory for preteen girls are sparking a backlash among parents and consumer advocates.—John Carreyrou, The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 7, 2007
February 13, 2007:
Vol. 3, Issue No. 12
Fear: The Most Powerful Emotion on the Planet How to Put Fear to Work in Your Marketing Efforts
In 2005, Merck & Co.—the huge pharmaceutical conglomerate—was poised to get FDA approval for Gardasil, a supposedly foolproof vaccine against cervical cancer.In June 2006, the influential government Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), recommended that shots be given to all pre-teen girls starting as young as nine at the discretion of their doctors.Merck operatives and lobbyists blitzed state legislators with the news.
Their message of fear: Unless you make Gardasil a requirement for entrance into junior high and high schools, girls in your state could die of cervical cancer. So far, fearful lawmakers in 20 states are drafting bills that make the vaccine mandatory.If the bills become law, the three shots of vaccine—totaling $360 per child— will represent billions of dollars for Merck.
Fear works.Fear Begets Fear-1Many parents are fearful of their daughters being forcefully vaccinated. As John Carreyrou wrote in The Wall Street Journal:Tina Walker, the mother of an 11-year-old girl in Flower Mound, Texas, says she would prefer to wait until the vaccine has been on the market for several years before subjecting her child to it.
“We are the guinea pigs here,” she says.Tina Walker is spot-on. No one knows the long-term effects of this vaccine. The Wall Street Journal reported that so far “82 adverse events” have occurred as a result of Gardasil injections.
How hungry is Merck for this business? One of its lobbyists in Texas is the former chief of staff for Governor Rick Perry and Merck’s political action committee donated $6,000 to Perry’s re-election campaign. This past week, Governor Perry issued an executive order mandating that every female child entering the sixth grade must be vaccinated with Gardasil starting in 2008.
Currently, Merck is being sued by 1,400 patients—and families of the deceased— for failing to reveal that the long-term use of its drug, Vioxx, could result in heart problems and death.
Presumably it is desperate for the Gardasil windfall in order to pay off the projected billions in Vioxx judgments.Fear Begets Fear-2Vaccines for chicken pox, polio and measles are widely accepted. No parent wants a child in school exposed to one of these highly contagious diseases.But cervical cancer? You do not contract it from a crowd or in a swimming pool. It is sexually transmitted.
A number of conservative organizations have come out against mandatory vaccination because they fear that it will encourage sexual promiscuity among girls and young women. It seems to me that the behavior of daughters is private family business and not any concern of busybody butt-in-skies across town or around the country. But then I have never had kids, so what do I know?
Interestingly, on February 5, Reuters reported on a Common Sense Media survey of 1,138 parents across the United States which concluded that 57 percent of parents were fearful of their kids being exposed to the media versus 45 percent that said they were more concerned about sex or alcohol abuse.This story will not receive widespread coverage because the media are fearful of publicity generated by parental criticism and the possibility of advertising boycotts.
In combing through 20 newspapers and Web sites a day, and downloading dozens of stories, I cannot help but notice widespread fear throughout our society. A sampling from just this past week:* Pinch Fears—and Fires—Morgan Stanley.
The New York Times publisher, Arthur (Pinch) Sulzberger, Jr. axed Morgan Stanley because of fear that the family money manager, Hassan Elmasry, will be successful in his campaign to change the corporate share structure in order to wrest tight control of the company from the Sulzberger family.*
Lisa Nowak Fears Colleen Shipman Would Steal Her ManIn one of the most bizarre—and sad—stories of the week, Astronaut Lisa Nowak packed a BB gun, pepper spray, plastic gloves, garbage bags, and donned a wig and diapers (so she would not have to take a bathroom break) to drive 900 miles from Houston to Orlando. Her objective was to confront Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman about her relationship with another astronaut. That an Annapolis graduate and former test pilot who had risen to the rank of captain did not come to her senses somewhere in the eighth or ninth hour of her drive and say to herself, “What in the hell am I doing!” is a testament to the power of fear.*
Oil Companies Fear Global Warming Report. The British Newspaper, The Guardian, reported that the American Enterprise Institute—a conservative Washington think tank funded by ExxonMobil—offered scientists and economists $10,000 each for articles that would undermine a major report on climate change issued by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.*
Queen Fears Backlash of Prince Charles “going green.” The Daily Mail reported that Her Majesty fears that the Prince of Wales is embarrassing other members of the royal family with his environmental stance and speech in New York that climate change was a “war” that must be won. “It is feared the knock-on effects of the criticism may restrict the royals’ ability to act as ambassadors abroad,” said The Daily Mail. “Some senior sources fear the situation may lead to splits in the royal family itself.” *
Voters Fear Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. “Mormon Candidate Braces for Religion as an Issue,” was the headline of a New York Times feature this past February 8. “Mr. Romney’s advisers acknowledged that popular misconceptions about Mormonism—as well as questions about whether Mormons are beholden to their church’s leaders on public policy—could give his opponents ammunition in the wide-open fight among Republicans to become the consensus candidate of social conservatives,” wrote Adam Nagourney and Laurie Goodstein.
One Industry Entirely Based on Fear: InsuranceAll insurance is purchased out of fear—fear of financial ruin. Health, homeowner, long-term care, automobile, flood, travel, liability—all are policies for which people pay dearly. And both insurers and insureds have one single, fervent hope: no claims.Yet insurance marketers have the most screwed-up vocabulary of any industry, because they do not understand the difference between features and benefits. For example, a 10-year term life insurance policy might offer the following “benefits:”* Provide a death benefit to the designated beneficiary of $1 million.*
Provide Accidental Death and Dismemberment benefit equal to the amount of Basic Group Life Insurance.* Offers an accelerated death benefit, which allows terminally ill employees the opportunity to collect all or part of their life insurance prior to death.* No physical exam is required.* Your acceptance is based on your answers to just three simple health questions.* Once enrolled, benefits are payable from the very first day coverage takes effect.* There is no waiting period before full benefits are available.* You can never be singled out for a rate increase.*
Etc., etc., etc.
In any other industry, these would be features. Only insurance marketers call them benefits.How would a direct marketer use fear to sell insurance?“Go for points of maximum anxiety,” counsels the great copywriter Bill Bonner who presides over the multimillion-dollar Agora Publishing.
In other words, get inside the heads of the people to whom you are writing, figure out what keeps them awake at three in the morning and feed on those fears. For example, chances are that they are wildly overextended financially and if anything happened to the breadwinner, the family would be evicted from their home and forced on to public assistance.The benefits of having a $1 million term life policy: You can sleep soundly knowing that if the unthinkable happened, the mortgage would be paid and your family will be taken care of. They will remember you with love for your foresight and for the protection you gave them rather than with contempt for putting them out on the street.The actual features of the policy are incidental to the sale.
Another Industry Based on Fear: Politics
Who can forget the gaffe that may have cost John Kerry the presidency when he said the following about the senate vote on the Iraq War, “I voted for it before I voted against it.” The Republicans replayed that line over and over again with lethal effect, scaring the voters into believing Kerry was a flip-flopper and therefore a danger. When Kerry refused to immediately dispute the Swift Boaters’ charges that his Vietnam medals were not earned, voters perceived that maybe those allegations were true and feared that Kerry was a liar and a coward that could not be trusted to support our troops in Iraq. The 2004 presidential election was won on voter fear of John Kerry.
Hillary Clinton is in for the same treatment—the result of the 20-second gaffe at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting in Washington early in February—that I mentioned in last week’s edition of this e-zine.
Here is the fear-based, 30-second spot I would run were I managing the campaign of Barack Obama or Rudolph Giuliani:
[SIGN ACROSS TOP OF SCREEN THROUGHOUT THE 30-SECOND SPOT]Should Hillary Clinton Be President?
[ON SMALL TV SCREEN INSET, SENATOR CLINTON SPEAKS TO DNC. USE THE JERKY, PRIMITIVE YouTube.com VERSION TO GIVE THE IMPRESSION IT WAS A HIDDEN CAMERA CAPTURING AN OFF-THE-RECORD SPEECH]The other day, the oil companies reported the highest profits in the history of the world. I want to take those profits and I want to put them into a strategic energy fund … [SOUND FADES TO SILENCE][ON SCREEN, WE SEE CLINTON CONTINUING TO SPEAK. NO SOUND]
[GIULIANI VOICE OVER]In June 2005, the Supreme Court said that the government could seize your home and turn it into condos in order to raise more tax money.Now Hillary Clinton wants to seize business profits. What will Hillary try to seize next? Your investments? Your savings? Your bank account? Your salary? This is more than scary. It’s un-American.I’m Rudy Giuliani and I approved this message.[LOGO]GIULIANI IN ‘08 In short, if you can scare the wits out of people and then offer salvation, you are on your way to a successful promotional effort.
Takeaway Points to Consider:
* “Probably well over half of our buying choices are based on emotion.”—Jack Maxson, freelancer*
“Go for points of maximum anxiety.”—Bill Bonner*
The seven key copy drivers—the emotional hot buttons that cause people to act: Fear—Greed—Guilt—Anger—Exclusivity—Salvation—Flattery.* Of these, the most powerful is fear.*
“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.”—Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)*
“I am always living with fear.”—Placido Domingo (b. 1941)*
“The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear—fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.” —H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)*
“Fear makes us feel our humanity.”—Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)*
“When I was 10 years old, I lived with fear of the atom bomb. It would keep me awake nights and make me wake up screaming. We all carried that with us.”—Cass Elliot (1941-1974)*
“Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.”—Aristotle (384-322 BCE)*
“We manage the fear, I manage the fear, but it certainly takes its toll, the strain does.”—Christiane Amanpour (b. 1958)
Web Sites Related to Today's Edition:
Merck’s Gardasil Press Releasehttp://tinyurl.com/yvd8pq
Bill Bonner’s Agora Publishinghttp://www.agora-inc.com
Simply you have a need and someone has the ability to either help you with that need or inhibit your ability to satisfy that need. The need is the thing that has the fear in it. It is the thing that holds the power. It is not the ability that holds the power.
Historically and somewhat naturally we think that the power is in the ability to affect the need. But if the need is small enough then there is little power to trigger.
Identifying power with a thing, or ability to use a thing, is one of those misdirecting myths about power.
I get a regular newsletter from Denny Hatch - a direct marketing/PR writer and speaker. He gives examples of good or bad marketing and offers explanation and analysis.
Like so many newsletters and emails we get they are about promoting the interests of the sender. The idea is to show you how that vendor can solve your need, or has insight that you don’t have. It plays on your need and offers an ability to solve it.
That is what marketing is – deliberate attempts at power. The deliberate attempt to stimulate the motivating power in your needs by offering an ability and thus controlling or influencing a choice.
It’s a kind of poetic layering that Denny uses his often insightful analysis of others attempts at power as a platform to use his power and thus impact choice.
Add to that the layers of power you can find in the actual story. Using a recent newspaper article, he tells us about people who use fear in their marketing - because it works.
I know when these kinds of ads and PR techniques are used, regardless of customer response, the result always includes an element of mistrust.
Power destroys trust. When someone uses your fear to get you to do what they want you to do - although you may be willing to do it to alleviate your fear - in the end, you don’t really like the person who influenced you that way.
Yes it works. Power works from time to time. Big surprise…
But now I ask you – how do you feel about it?
Below is the copy of Denny’s newsletter from last week.
Enjoy the power analysis.
Moves to Vaccinate Girls for Cervical Cancer Draw FireAs Merck Lobbies States To Require Shots,Some Fret Over Side Effects, MoralsBills being drafted in some 20 U.S. states that would make a cervical-cancer vaccine mandatory for preteen girls are sparking a backlash among parents and consumer advocates.—John Carreyrou, The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 7, 2007
February 13, 2007:
Vol. 3, Issue No. 12
Fear: The Most Powerful Emotion on the Planet How to Put Fear to Work in Your Marketing Efforts
In 2005, Merck & Co.—the huge pharmaceutical conglomerate—was poised to get FDA approval for Gardasil, a supposedly foolproof vaccine against cervical cancer.In June 2006, the influential government Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), recommended that shots be given to all pre-teen girls starting as young as nine at the discretion of their doctors.Merck operatives and lobbyists blitzed state legislators with the news.
Their message of fear: Unless you make Gardasil a requirement for entrance into junior high and high schools, girls in your state could die of cervical cancer. So far, fearful lawmakers in 20 states are drafting bills that make the vaccine mandatory.If the bills become law, the three shots of vaccine—totaling $360 per child— will represent billions of dollars for Merck.
Fear works.Fear Begets Fear-1Many parents are fearful of their daughters being forcefully vaccinated. As John Carreyrou wrote in The Wall Street Journal:Tina Walker, the mother of an 11-year-old girl in Flower Mound, Texas, says she would prefer to wait until the vaccine has been on the market for several years before subjecting her child to it.
“We are the guinea pigs here,” she says.Tina Walker is spot-on. No one knows the long-term effects of this vaccine. The Wall Street Journal reported that so far “82 adverse events” have occurred as a result of Gardasil injections.
How hungry is Merck for this business? One of its lobbyists in Texas is the former chief of staff for Governor Rick Perry and Merck’s political action committee donated $6,000 to Perry’s re-election campaign. This past week, Governor Perry issued an executive order mandating that every female child entering the sixth grade must be vaccinated with Gardasil starting in 2008.
Currently, Merck is being sued by 1,400 patients—and families of the deceased— for failing to reveal that the long-term use of its drug, Vioxx, could result in heart problems and death.
Presumably it is desperate for the Gardasil windfall in order to pay off the projected billions in Vioxx judgments.Fear Begets Fear-2Vaccines for chicken pox, polio and measles are widely accepted. No parent wants a child in school exposed to one of these highly contagious diseases.But cervical cancer? You do not contract it from a crowd or in a swimming pool. It is sexually transmitted.
A number of conservative organizations have come out against mandatory vaccination because they fear that it will encourage sexual promiscuity among girls and young women. It seems to me that the behavior of daughters is private family business and not any concern of busybody butt-in-skies across town or around the country. But then I have never had kids, so what do I know?
Interestingly, on February 5, Reuters reported on a Common Sense Media survey of 1,138 parents across the United States which concluded that 57 percent of parents were fearful of their kids being exposed to the media versus 45 percent that said they were more concerned about sex or alcohol abuse.This story will not receive widespread coverage because the media are fearful of publicity generated by parental criticism and the possibility of advertising boycotts.
In combing through 20 newspapers and Web sites a day, and downloading dozens of stories, I cannot help but notice widespread fear throughout our society. A sampling from just this past week:* Pinch Fears—and Fires—Morgan Stanley.
The New York Times publisher, Arthur (Pinch) Sulzberger, Jr. axed Morgan Stanley because of fear that the family money manager, Hassan Elmasry, will be successful in his campaign to change the corporate share structure in order to wrest tight control of the company from the Sulzberger family.*
Lisa Nowak Fears Colleen Shipman Would Steal Her ManIn one of the most bizarre—and sad—stories of the week, Astronaut Lisa Nowak packed a BB gun, pepper spray, plastic gloves, garbage bags, and donned a wig and diapers (so she would not have to take a bathroom break) to drive 900 miles from Houston to Orlando. Her objective was to confront Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman about her relationship with another astronaut. That an Annapolis graduate and former test pilot who had risen to the rank of captain did not come to her senses somewhere in the eighth or ninth hour of her drive and say to herself, “What in the hell am I doing!” is a testament to the power of fear.*
Oil Companies Fear Global Warming Report. The British Newspaper, The Guardian, reported that the American Enterprise Institute—a conservative Washington think tank funded by ExxonMobil—offered scientists and economists $10,000 each for articles that would undermine a major report on climate change issued by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.*
Queen Fears Backlash of Prince Charles “going green.” The Daily Mail reported that Her Majesty fears that the Prince of Wales is embarrassing other members of the royal family with his environmental stance and speech in New York that climate change was a “war” that must be won. “It is feared the knock-on effects of the criticism may restrict the royals’ ability to act as ambassadors abroad,” said The Daily Mail. “Some senior sources fear the situation may lead to splits in the royal family itself.” *
Voters Fear Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. “Mormon Candidate Braces for Religion as an Issue,” was the headline of a New York Times feature this past February 8. “Mr. Romney’s advisers acknowledged that popular misconceptions about Mormonism—as well as questions about whether Mormons are beholden to their church’s leaders on public policy—could give his opponents ammunition in the wide-open fight among Republicans to become the consensus candidate of social conservatives,” wrote Adam Nagourney and Laurie Goodstein.
One Industry Entirely Based on Fear: InsuranceAll insurance is purchased out of fear—fear of financial ruin. Health, homeowner, long-term care, automobile, flood, travel, liability—all are policies for which people pay dearly. And both insurers and insureds have one single, fervent hope: no claims.Yet insurance marketers have the most screwed-up vocabulary of any industry, because they do not understand the difference between features and benefits. For example, a 10-year term life insurance policy might offer the following “benefits:”* Provide a death benefit to the designated beneficiary of $1 million.*
Provide Accidental Death and Dismemberment benefit equal to the amount of Basic Group Life Insurance.* Offers an accelerated death benefit, which allows terminally ill employees the opportunity to collect all or part of their life insurance prior to death.* No physical exam is required.* Your acceptance is based on your answers to just three simple health questions.* Once enrolled, benefits are payable from the very first day coverage takes effect.* There is no waiting period before full benefits are available.* You can never be singled out for a rate increase.*
Etc., etc., etc.
In any other industry, these would be features. Only insurance marketers call them benefits.How would a direct marketer use fear to sell insurance?“Go for points of maximum anxiety,” counsels the great copywriter Bill Bonner who presides over the multimillion-dollar Agora Publishing.
In other words, get inside the heads of the people to whom you are writing, figure out what keeps them awake at three in the morning and feed on those fears. For example, chances are that they are wildly overextended financially and if anything happened to the breadwinner, the family would be evicted from their home and forced on to public assistance.The benefits of having a $1 million term life policy: You can sleep soundly knowing that if the unthinkable happened, the mortgage would be paid and your family will be taken care of. They will remember you with love for your foresight and for the protection you gave them rather than with contempt for putting them out on the street.The actual features of the policy are incidental to the sale.
Another Industry Based on Fear: Politics
Who can forget the gaffe that may have cost John Kerry the presidency when he said the following about the senate vote on the Iraq War, “I voted for it before I voted against it.” The Republicans replayed that line over and over again with lethal effect, scaring the voters into believing Kerry was a flip-flopper and therefore a danger. When Kerry refused to immediately dispute the Swift Boaters’ charges that his Vietnam medals were not earned, voters perceived that maybe those allegations were true and feared that Kerry was a liar and a coward that could not be trusted to support our troops in Iraq. The 2004 presidential election was won on voter fear of John Kerry.
Hillary Clinton is in for the same treatment—the result of the 20-second gaffe at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting in Washington early in February—that I mentioned in last week’s edition of this e-zine.
Here is the fear-based, 30-second spot I would run were I managing the campaign of Barack Obama or Rudolph Giuliani:
[SIGN ACROSS TOP OF SCREEN THROUGHOUT THE 30-SECOND SPOT]Should Hillary Clinton Be President?
[ON SMALL TV SCREEN INSET, SENATOR CLINTON SPEAKS TO DNC. USE THE JERKY, PRIMITIVE YouTube.com VERSION TO GIVE THE IMPRESSION IT WAS A HIDDEN CAMERA CAPTURING AN OFF-THE-RECORD SPEECH]The other day, the oil companies reported the highest profits in the history of the world. I want to take those profits and I want to put them into a strategic energy fund … [SOUND FADES TO SILENCE][ON SCREEN, WE SEE CLINTON CONTINUING TO SPEAK. NO SOUND]
[GIULIANI VOICE OVER]In June 2005, the Supreme Court said that the government could seize your home and turn it into condos in order to raise more tax money.Now Hillary Clinton wants to seize business profits. What will Hillary try to seize next? Your investments? Your savings? Your bank account? Your salary? This is more than scary. It’s un-American.I’m Rudy Giuliani and I approved this message.[LOGO]GIULIANI IN ‘08 In short, if you can scare the wits out of people and then offer salvation, you are on your way to a successful promotional effort.
Takeaway Points to Consider:
* “Probably well over half of our buying choices are based on emotion.”—Jack Maxson, freelancer*
“Go for points of maximum anxiety.”—Bill Bonner*
The seven key copy drivers—the emotional hot buttons that cause people to act: Fear—Greed—Guilt—Anger—Exclusivity—Salvation—Flattery.* Of these, the most powerful is fear.*
“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.”—Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)*
“I am always living with fear.”—Placido Domingo (b. 1941)*
“The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear—fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.” —H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)*
“Fear makes us feel our humanity.”—Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)*
“When I was 10 years old, I lived with fear of the atom bomb. It would keep me awake nights and make me wake up screaming. We all carried that with us.”—Cass Elliot (1941-1974)*
“Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.”—Aristotle (384-322 BCE)*
“We manage the fear, I manage the fear, but it certainly takes its toll, the strain does.”—Christiane Amanpour (b. 1958)
Web Sites Related to Today's Edition:
Merck’s Gardasil Press Releasehttp://tinyurl.com/yvd8pq
Bill Bonner’s Agora Publishinghttp://www.agora-inc.com
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The dimensions of power
I was asked at the Brantford speak if it is possible that we use power unintentionally? And of so is it still power?
From a simply technical point of view the answer is simple – if you are using an ability that triggers someone’s need and it impacts a choice they are making - then that is power.
There is a great deal of discussion about this in the modern sociological world of power. In fact it seems to be the most popular topic with sociologists who study power.
A leader in the study of that question, Dr. Steven Lukes, has recently re-released his book - Power: A Radical View, Second Edition. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. It is best described in a review by Sociologist Daniel Béland of the University of Calgary, as follows:
Using the post-war debate over "power elite" (Mills) and "pluralism" (Dahl) as a starting point, the 1974 essay — reprinted without major modifications — explores the three dimensions of power. Associated with the work of Robert Dahl, the first dimension is related to "the study of concrete, observable behavior" (17, emphasis in original). From this angle, what matters is the analysis of observable conflicts between organized interests over concrete political issues. The second dimension of power is underlined as the result of political scientists Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz's critique of Dahl's pluralism. This critique points to the forces that prevent potentially controversial issues from generating "observable conflicts." Consequently, in order to grasp this second dimension of power, "it is crucially important to identify potential issues which nondecision-making prevents from being actual" (23). Beyond the analysis of observable conflicts, political analysis is about studying hidden forces that constrain the agenda. Thus, according to Lukes, power has a third dimension, which is ideological in nature: "Is it not the supreme and most insidious exercise of power to prevent people, to whatever degree, from having grievances by shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way that they accept their role in the existing order of things, either because they can see or imagine no alternative to it, or because they see it as natural and unchangeable, or because they value it as divinely ordained and beneficial?"
I believe that there is no question that power is sometimes used so effectively that no one knows it is at work. This is commonly experienced everywhere from the classroom to the sports channel. However the real issue for my friend I think is whether or not this is actually power? Does there have to be a conflict? Does power have to be intentional?
I think the first question is how you define power. If power is about the results – like it is with most sociologists then whether or not you see a response determines whether or not there is power. I think all it shows is whether or not there is sufficient power to create a measurable phenomenon.
If however you define power by its method – the application of an ability to a need, then we see intention has nothing to do with it.
The study of power is ageless. However in a modern context we have had scientific rules to honor. Originally we saw power as a question of “power over” another and the idea of dominance. We study and measure the effects of power. Again all we were focused on was the “other” and their will using the subject only as a meter or measuring device. The implication was the need for the choice to be made against the will of another.
Then it was a question of “power to.” We asked if it was possible to define the questions so as to have impact on the answers. Again the target was conflict and the ability to control the outcome by controlling the question.
Finally Lukes asked if it was possible to have power that is not detected as power and hence define the reality within which the question is asked – not just the question itself.
But all of this study has an underlying assumption – the actor intends to influence the outcome. None of this study answers my friend’s question.
I see his point. He is a large man. He would get accused of bullying because he is big. He has a booming voice. He gets accused of bullying because he is loud. He is accused of using power when that is not his intention.
I think the second more important question is what is the role of intention within a power dynamic?
I have always made it clear that I believe that life is lived in a series of choices. Choice is the increment of living. We go from choice to choice, acting on those deliberate and often non-deliberate decisions. The whole purpose of power is to impact those choices. Certainly when choices are made without the consideration of the whole gambit of possibilities, then there is a “Lukes” type, or layer, of power which is at work and goes unrecognized and therefore unaddressed.
When we participate in that “system” of power I suppose we have no intention and the goal of the power dynamic propagates itself.
Using power without intending to use it is still power because it is essential to see it as a method of acting on the subject not as a characteristic of the actor.
I don’t know if I have an answer for you.
However I think the question of intention is still the most important question we can ask.
It seems that few of us live a deliberate life. We act on memory and habit and seldom question the nature of our lifestyle and its purposes. We are so good at power we don’t even have to try to use it. We just do.
The significant question isn’t whether or not it is still power if/when we are not intending to use it? The question is whether or not this is a true life if we are not deliberately living it?
When it comes to intention, power is just one of those things we do without intention.
Intention - that is a whole new ballgame. Power is about forming intention. It is about controlling intention. It is another dynamic that has to be recognized and overcome.
Choice never goes away - whether or not we make one.
From a simply technical point of view the answer is simple – if you are using an ability that triggers someone’s need and it impacts a choice they are making - then that is power.
There is a great deal of discussion about this in the modern sociological world of power. In fact it seems to be the most popular topic with sociologists who study power.
A leader in the study of that question, Dr. Steven Lukes, has recently re-released his book - Power: A Radical View, Second Edition. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. It is best described in a review by Sociologist Daniel Béland of the University of Calgary, as follows:
Using the post-war debate over "power elite" (Mills) and "pluralism" (Dahl) as a starting point, the 1974 essay — reprinted without major modifications — explores the three dimensions of power. Associated with the work of Robert Dahl, the first dimension is related to "the study of concrete, observable behavior" (17, emphasis in original). From this angle, what matters is the analysis of observable conflicts between organized interests over concrete political issues. The second dimension of power is underlined as the result of political scientists Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz's critique of Dahl's pluralism. This critique points to the forces that prevent potentially controversial issues from generating "observable conflicts." Consequently, in order to grasp this second dimension of power, "it is crucially important to identify potential issues which nondecision-making prevents from being actual" (23). Beyond the analysis of observable conflicts, political analysis is about studying hidden forces that constrain the agenda. Thus, according to Lukes, power has a third dimension, which is ideological in nature: "Is it not the supreme and most insidious exercise of power to prevent people, to whatever degree, from having grievances by shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way that they accept their role in the existing order of things, either because they can see or imagine no alternative to it, or because they see it as natural and unchangeable, or because they value it as divinely ordained and beneficial?"
I believe that there is no question that power is sometimes used so effectively that no one knows it is at work. This is commonly experienced everywhere from the classroom to the sports channel. However the real issue for my friend I think is whether or not this is actually power? Does there have to be a conflict? Does power have to be intentional?
I think the first question is how you define power. If power is about the results – like it is with most sociologists then whether or not you see a response determines whether or not there is power. I think all it shows is whether or not there is sufficient power to create a measurable phenomenon.
If however you define power by its method – the application of an ability to a need, then we see intention has nothing to do with it.
The study of power is ageless. However in a modern context we have had scientific rules to honor. Originally we saw power as a question of “power over” another and the idea of dominance. We study and measure the effects of power. Again all we were focused on was the “other” and their will using the subject only as a meter or measuring device. The implication was the need for the choice to be made against the will of another.
Then it was a question of “power to.” We asked if it was possible to define the questions so as to have impact on the answers. Again the target was conflict and the ability to control the outcome by controlling the question.
Finally Lukes asked if it was possible to have power that is not detected as power and hence define the reality within which the question is asked – not just the question itself.
But all of this study has an underlying assumption – the actor intends to influence the outcome. None of this study answers my friend’s question.
I see his point. He is a large man. He would get accused of bullying because he is big. He has a booming voice. He gets accused of bullying because he is loud. He is accused of using power when that is not his intention.
I think the second more important question is what is the role of intention within a power dynamic?
I have always made it clear that I believe that life is lived in a series of choices. Choice is the increment of living. We go from choice to choice, acting on those deliberate and often non-deliberate decisions. The whole purpose of power is to impact those choices. Certainly when choices are made without the consideration of the whole gambit of possibilities, then there is a “Lukes” type, or layer, of power which is at work and goes unrecognized and therefore unaddressed.
When we participate in that “system” of power I suppose we have no intention and the goal of the power dynamic propagates itself.
Using power without intending to use it is still power because it is essential to see it as a method of acting on the subject not as a characteristic of the actor.
I don’t know if I have an answer for you.
However I think the question of intention is still the most important question we can ask.
It seems that few of us live a deliberate life. We act on memory and habit and seldom question the nature of our lifestyle and its purposes. We are so good at power we don’t even have to try to use it. We just do.
The significant question isn’t whether or not it is still power if/when we are not intending to use it? The question is whether or not this is a true life if we are not deliberately living it?
When it comes to intention, power is just one of those things we do without intention.
Intention - that is a whole new ballgame. Power is about forming intention. It is about controlling intention. It is another dynamic that has to be recognized and overcome.
Choice never goes away - whether or not we make one.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Brantford Speak
I thoroughly enjoyed my day in Brantford last Tuesday.
The idea was to connect the insights into power to the conduct of business. Truth be known, marketing is one of the things that has taught me a lot about power. As much as my practice of law has.
Power is about choice. That is its purpose – to impact choices. Business is about getting people to choose our product over the competition’s offerings. The connection is obvious.
Nonetheless I was pleasantly surprised to see the flashes of enlightenment on the faces in the group. It is a subtle and almost trite revelation that the source of power is need. Most people would pause and say “Yes, and so…?” However as much as it is seems a small leap of logic to connect power and need, when people finally recognize that little nexus, they automatically start thinking of the implications. Those implications lead them to a thousand questions.
The questions are what I enjoy the most when we chat afterward.
If you have questions or thoughts – post them here.
I am thankful for the opportunity to come out and speak. If you would like a speaker for your events, let me know. We can customize these ideas in countless ways because power exists in countless forms.
Thanks
The idea was to connect the insights into power to the conduct of business. Truth be known, marketing is one of the things that has taught me a lot about power. As much as my practice of law has.
Power is about choice. That is its purpose – to impact choices. Business is about getting people to choose our product over the competition’s offerings. The connection is obvious.
Nonetheless I was pleasantly surprised to see the flashes of enlightenment on the faces in the group. It is a subtle and almost trite revelation that the source of power is need. Most people would pause and say “Yes, and so…?” However as much as it is seems a small leap of logic to connect power and need, when people finally recognize that little nexus, they automatically start thinking of the implications. Those implications lead them to a thousand questions.
The questions are what I enjoy the most when we chat afterward.
If you have questions or thoughts – post them here.
I am thankful for the opportunity to come out and speak. If you would like a speaker for your events, let me know. We can customize these ideas in countless ways because power exists in countless forms.
Thanks
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