Question Five

Q V. WHY ARE THEY USING POWER?

Because they have a Need.
All Power Dynamics are Bipolar.
They are driven by two sets of Needs.

So, what is their Need?
Examine their feelings.

Understand your Mechanism.

Categorize their Needs as Requirements, Desires or Attachments.

Examine the Complexities, how they Compound and how
they Compete.

State their Need.
State the whole Dynamic.

State it out loud.


Knowing that the source of power is Need changes everything. No matter what happens or how you feel, that ultimate truth offers the potential to break out of the cycle of conflict and power and see how all power is balanced.

When people use power it is because they are seeking to satisfy a need. It is the purpose of power.

Power is about choice. When you think power ask yourself what is the choice they are targeting?

Power comes from needs and abilities. So ask your self what are my needs and what are the abilities they have to affect those needs?

And then ask it again.

All power is BiPolar in nature. No power dynamic is created unless there is a need to be filled.

So ask the question – What is their need that drives this power dynamic and what is my ability that they are wanting me to use in their favor?

Some of the needs of the Actors are obvious and simple. You can name them without effort. They are predictable because people are predictable. And often the dynamic is about an outcome that you know. You may not have to look very hard to recognize why they want to use power.

Sometimes it’s not so simple. People can be sick and twisted. There are those who use power simply to prove they can. They do it for the rush or the thrill of it. Because they find having power over others to be pleasurable. But it is still a need. That need to use it or prove it, is the source of your potential power back on them.

The trick is to use their need just enough to put a halt to the dynamic.

Halting the dynamic and seeing it for all it is defeats power. It gives back the opportunity for choice. That is all we really wanted in the first place – was to have choice.

But there could be more…

If you can pause the dynamic long enough to state it out loud – to describe it to the other person in terms of needs and abilities – you may create more than just your own power. You may introduce a chance to do more than just take back choice. You may create the chance to openly discuss power and how in plays in that relationship.

Many people don’t like to think that they may be a power user.

We all are. It can’t be denied. We all use power from time to time to get our way. It is so natural to us because it has been practiced for most of our lives. We can do it without intention or thought. It just comes out sometimes.

But that doesn’t mean we really want to do that. It may mean we just don’t see it. It may mean we just haven’t tried anything else yet. – Yet…

The Bipolar Nature of the Power dynamic does more than balance the power and give back choice. It creates the chance for human evolution…

Now that would be some choice…

Question Four - the method

QIV. WHAT IS MY NEED?

Identify your operating needs.
All of them.

Look to your feelings.
Control, Influence and Seduction
Fear, Anger and Excitement
Look to the Mechanisms they are using.
Is it directed at you or someone else?
Does it help or hinder?
Is it actual or potential?

Identify them as Requirements, Desires and Attachments.

Identify how they are Complex, Compounding and Competing.

Clearly articulate your Needs and state the Dynamic.



The Method is a simple thing. But it is not easy.

If the source of power is need, then you can know that when you feel some power dynamic it is being driven by some need or set of needs within you.

The truth is the power against you originates within you. Finding that origin is the first step.

When you have successfully located the need being stimulated by the mechanism, there are any number of choices you can make. After all, power is about choice. Having choice in spite of the power dynamic being utilized on you, is true power.

Isolating and naming that need is not easy. When have people been good at understanding their own emotions and feelings? Feelings are exactly that kind of evasive and deceptive thing. We may act on them and respond to them but we seldom have a good handle on them. Needs are like that.

They are like that because most of our needs are perceived as feelings. Hunger, thirst, yearning, cravings, desires, attachments, loneliness, love, fear, excitement, and anger are all feelings connected to need. We feel our needs. That is why they can be converted to feelings of power. It is the feeling of power that is motivating. Power is a feeling that motivates our choice.

That is why it works.

That is also why power is an illusion.

Getting a good understanding, a clear picture, of our needs is not easy. But it is necessary. When we can see the need that is being triggered by the mechanism employed by the actor, we can comprehend the dynamic. We can describe it in terms of words. We can state it out loud. We can externalize it and look at it and get a grip on it again. And amazingly often the power within it will begin to dissipate.

There are times when the need is so real and so un-compromise-able that we may decide consciously that we will comply with the intentions of the actor. We may agree to succumb. But at least it becomes a choice again. Not some gut reaction based in anger and resentment and weakness.

To find the need we must be systematic. In the beginning this system will be slow and appear inefficient. You may question its value given the pressing way people play out power. After all, time is often the most significant element in the circumstance. We may have to make choices in milliseconds. The idea then of a lengthy analysis would seem ridiculous - certainly useless in such situations.

However, like every other kind of thinking and decision making we do, we have conditioned ourselves into considering a specific set of factors. When we choose a food off a menu we can often do it in a matter of moments because we have made such decisions a number of times before. We have practiced and we have become good at it. We can give due thought to ten or twenty factors and make decisions in a moment. The difference is that you have never seen power as a thing of needs before. So it has not been part of your consideration in the past.

In the past you have looked to the consequences and the consequences alone. Then you feel the power and you make the decision. In the future, with practice you can look to the operating needs and then choose to submit to them or not.

It is nothing more than a new sequence of thoughts that you must practice and implement. You are not doing something you haven’t done millions of times before. You are just doing it in a new way. Because you already do this kind of thinking, it will become easy within just a few tries.

The sequence is this – First, look at the feelings you are experiencing – what do they tell you? What are you afraid of? What are you angry about? What are you excited about? How is it that you feel controlled, influenced or seduced? What is the feeling that is motivating you and where is it coming from?

Second, look to the thing they are using to get you to change your choice. What is the mechanism they are using to create this feeling? Are they applying it to you directly or to someone else? Is it an attempt to help you in your happiness or to inhibit or hurt your happiness? Is it real and actual? Or is it a threat or promise?

Next consider how you might classify this need. Is this a requirement? Is it something that you cannot live without? Does it go to your survival or inflict pain? Is it a desire? Is it something that you wish for? Is it something that you want but can live without? Is it part of my dreams and wishes? Is it an attachment? Is this a person, idea or thing that you are compelled to protect or defend? Is it something that you can’t let go of? Is it something that will cause you to lose self esteem if you allow it to be compromised?

Finally ask yourself if this feeling of need is complicated. Is it complex? Is it part of a larger need or plan you have? Are there other needs which are competing with this one? Do I have to make a choice between satisfying one need over another? Does it feel worse because it is compounded with other needs? Am I feeling this need because of other needs which are going on at the same time?

Make sure you are taking enough time to see deep into that pool of needs and identify all of the ones that are operating.

Now you see the source of the power against you. You can even describe it. They are using their ability to ……….to help or hinder my need for……….to get me to make the following choice…………..

You can state your side of the dynamic.

Your side you say…?

There is another side?

Yes of course. People don’t use power without a reason. They are motivated to use power because they have a need. This is another of those infinite possibilities hidden inside the truth about power. If the source of power is the need of the subject, and the actor is only using power because they have a need, then their need is your source of power.

Yes, in every power dynamic there are two sides. And yes, every time someone uses power on you, there is an opportunity for you to use power on them.

If you really want to….

Complications

It may be that the dynamic of power as described appears a little simplistic. After all it doesn't feel that straight forward when you are deep in the experience and the feelings of power. When the anger is welling up from the feeling of being controlled by another person, to suggest that you should have better control of your needs, seems to ignore the magnitude of the situation.

The reason this appears at first blush to be an over-simplification is because all of our needs are active in some degree at the same time. They compete and compound with each other in ways that inhibit our ability to isolate one operating need.

We are simply a walking pool of needs. We have thousands in a given day and each one compels us to respond to it.

And they don’t wait their turn. Whether it is the result of some internal or external event or because some actor has tried to stimulate it, we can experience any need at ant time. We may be living one need when another comes forward and demands a response.

The needs we have compete for satisfaction. When a power dynamic is started with some other set of needs as the target, those new needs compete with those we are presently addressing. This exacerbates our feelings, frustrates our ability to satisfy them and enhances the actor’s ability to generate some power effect on the choices we are making at the time.

Two sets of power dynamics taking place from the efforts of two people can make our lives feel like hell. Imagine three or more…

When the boss wants you to work late and your spouse wants you at home and your child wants to play and you are hungry and need to eat and you are stressing over the unpaid bills, and you know that if you don’t get some exercise and stress relief you will have a heart attack, you are having some pretty complicated power dynamics.

Not only do they compete but they compound.

Sometimes a set of needs is augmented by other sets of needs that may or may not be related.

The effect of one need may be something you can over come.

You may be hungry and have a need for some nourishment.

But compound that with the need to feed your children and you have some pretty compelling power dynamics. So you can be understanding with someone who accepts a demotion and a cut in pay when you compound their need for food with the need to feed the children and the need to have shelter and the need to pay the bills and the need to have some self esteem and to have something like a career.

One set of needs adds to the next and soon the compounding effect makes it hard to distinguish one need from the other and impossible to isolate which need is the one that this power dynamic is playing on.

But there is more.

Needs can be complex.

Some needs are mental constructions that are built from a series of other needs that may need to be satisfied in some sequence or aggregate.

The need for a happy marriage is something that is built on a balance of satisfying other needs. This combines the need for self fulfillment and the fulfillment of others. You may start with your need for love and to be loved. There is the need to be appreciated for you as a person. You will have a little bit of companionship and common interests that need to be satisfied. You will have sex and affection. You will add a little bit of career with a little bit of child rearing. A dream or two for each of you. And maybe a little time for solitude and quiet.

All these needs must be satisfied. And each of them will have steps and increments for satisfaction.

All of them compounding and competing with each other – seeking satisfaction and thus compelling choices and behaviors. All being managed by you, day to day, moment to moment, to achieve the larger more complex goals…

Until some rotten SOB comes along and starts to use them as a source of power to control, influence or seduce your choices and get you to do, say or think what they want.

So when I say to you that the Dynamic of power is the simple application of a mechanism – an ability to help or hinder some operating need – to some active need that the actor has isolated and decided to use to create a feeling of control influence or seduction in you – you say it ain’t so simple…

Sometimes the mechanism will address more than the targeted need. Now here they are compounding with each other and those others we were busy trying to respond to. Sometimes the mechanism targets needs which we have sleeping happily waiting for later. Soon they compete for satisfaction. Sometimes the mechanism targets such a complicated complex set of needs that it is hard to see which part of that complex set is being activated. Sometimes that mechanism is so sweet that we cannot stop to think about anything.

The whole thing doesn’t feel simple. It feels so compelling and complicated. How can you simplify power this way?

No, the experience of Power is not simple.

It is not the dynamic that is complicated.

The needs are complicated. The dynamic is simple.

So when Power Dynamics compete, compound and are complex, it is because the needs one lives are competing, compounding and complex.

They are the source of that power.

Question Four

Coming to the realization that power is not what we have always imagined can have an immediate impact on your life.

Children see power as a characteristic of some other person. That person got their power either from someone else or as some great gift from heaven. The power is theirs. The power is in them. Or it is in the thing they wield.

Adults will strategize about getting power. They have no real plan because they do not really know where the power comes from. They continue into their adult lives seeing power as an attribute of someone's position or wealth.

They criticise those with power and say they would act differently if they had power. They dream of a day when they could have whatever they want. A day when they can get people to comply with their wishes.

Many simply give up and say I have no power. I will have no power. I am powerless and it is my life to avoid or submit to those who will rule my life.

But our insight changes that.

Knowing that the source of all power lies in the needs within the targeted subject of that power dynamic, opens doors to new methods. These are the Methods of having power.

It always tickles me to think that this little tiny fact can change one's life.

In this insight sleeps a thousand significant ideas that will dramatically impact our lives and the world around us.

Here is the first such idea.

If the source of power is need, then to stop the power against us, to overcome someones efforts to control , influence or seduce us, we simply need to understand which of our needs is operating and then do what we can to depower it.

Simple but not easy.

Understanding ones' own needs is not a common effort in our society. Our society teaches us to act on our needs. It encourages us to have what we want now. It facilitates us getting things. Our society says to have is to be happy. This, of course, is illusion.

But our society also teaches that those who can forbear such actions tend to have the upper hand. Those who can defer gratification of their needs find themselves in a position to satisfy greater more meaningful needs. Those in control of their needs have power.

Now we know why that is true.

But keeping to the Method of having power, we must follow a first step - know your operating needs.

What is the need, or set of needs, which are being accessed by the mechanism of power the Actor is utilizing now?

And that is our next question...


The Method

Q IV. WHAT IS MY NEED?


Identify your operating needs.
All of them.
Look to your feelings.
Control, Influence and Seduction
Fear, Anger and Excitement

Look to the Mechanisms they are using.
Is it directed at you or someone else?
Does it help or hinder?
Is it actual or potential?
Identify them as Requirements, Desires and Attachments.
Identify how they are Complex, Compounding and Competing.

Clearly articulate your Needs and state the Dynamic.

Question Three

So...

...if the idea that power cannot exist without a need within the subject is making sense to you, then you are acknowledging that your previous mental programming about power is not accurate.

Now you want to understand how power really works.

So you ask the next question...


Q III. WHAT IS THE DYNAMIC OF POWER?

Power is about Choice.
Power is about the Control, Influence or Seduction of that Choice.

The Actor has a Need the Subject can impact.

The Actor sees the Subject as a part of the Circumstance they must respond to.

To create Power the Actor identifies the Needs of the Subject.
The Actor applies a Mechanism of Power to help or hinder the satisfaction of the Subject’s Need.

As a result the Subject experiences feelings of Power - Control, Influence or Seduction.

Also, the Subject experiences feelings of motivation – Fear, Anger or Excitement.

Just like the Needs that create it, Power Dynamics are Complex, Compounding and Competing.

The Subject responds with a Choice.




Power is an interpersonal thing. Although we want to see structures and organizations in our society as powerful, in truth they are just groups of people. Sometimes they act on the directions of an individual who is a leader or an authority. Sometimes they act in some group-think fashion with no real single mentality. But in truth they act and it is the people who act.

Power is a people thing.

Everyday we all walk around saturated in needs. Some are requirements - absolutes that must be fulfilled or our survival is at risk. Some are simple desires, wishes or wants. Things we do not require but we want in some meaningful way.

They may not be so simple. They may be complex. The strategies we use to obtain our wishes will need to be just as complex.

We feel attachments. In truth we probably experience more attachments than anything else. We can turn survival into an attachment to a way of life. We can turn our simplist desires into something that we must have or we are not who we want to be. Thus they become attachments.

We are attached to people or things or ideas and we believe that if we release them, if we allow them to be breached, we are somehow violating our deepest self. We have so many attachments - and we show them in our actions and words - that it is hard for them not to become the source of someone else's power.

Very little of what we do in a day is not about some kind of requirement, desire or attachment.

And we are surrounded by people living this out.

In the pursuit of our desires and attachments, we find ourselves with opportunities to assist or be assisted - inhibit or be inhibited - in the satisfying of our collective needs. We collide with others who could help us or hinder us in any number of our needs. And they collide with us.

If we could use some help, we look around to find someone who would be willing to help. Sometimes that is easy. It is easy because we have friends and family that care for us - that are attached to us.

Sometimes others are not freely willing to help us.

So to motivate them to chose to help, we use power. We may offer them some reward - seduce them - into helping us. But to do so requires an understanding of what they want - what they need.

We may not be able to recognize something about them we could use to seduce, so we may use something to control them. We may threaten their well being by imposing or withholding something they need or want. Again we must first spot the need.

We may have nothing that can help or hinder them. So we may turn to others to do so for us. Others that are attached to us or others we can influence in some way using their unique set of needs.

In the end, what impacts the choice of others is our ability to help or hinder them in some Requirement, Desire or Attachment that they have.

The ability we have is a mechanism. It is the thing that releases the power that lies dormant within the need. It is not itself a thing of power. For power exists within people not within things. It is a mechanism that can release power if there is a need it can speak to.

For example...

The ability to have spend or give money - in large amounts - is an incredibly effective mechanism of power in our world because there is not much you cannot buy. However if there is no need for money in the life of our target subject, it is no longer powerful. Money does not create a lot of power in rich people. They already have it.

The power is not in the money, it is in our ability to use it to help or hinder the other person. Thus it is motivating them to help us in our own quest. It motivates by creating feelings of control, influence or seduction, coupled with feelings of anger, fear or excitement. The whole of the power experience is going on inside the subject. The actor is simply trying to use the needs of their subject to motivate a choice to do, say or think something. The mechanism allows them the chance to use the need - to exploit the power within the need.

The dynamic of power is simple.

It is always an application of a mechanism against a need to create an experience of control, influence or seduction coupled with motivating feelings of anger, fear or excitement.

Person against person. Whether a group of people or not. It is a personal thing.

It happens within the subject. It is created within the subject. The source of the power is within the subject. And the dynamic of power plays itself out within the mind of the subject.

And - for better or worse - power is created.

The Source of Power

Q II. WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF POWER?

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

Needs are experienced asRequirements, Desires, and Attachments.

Needs are Complex, Compounding and Competing.


Growing up in a world full of people using power over you can create myths about your reality.

From the instant you are born you are experiencing power. When your mother first decided to let you cry rather than pick you up, you experienced power. However long before this, you learned how to use power. It was why you cried. If you did, mom would pick you up. She would feed you or change you or just hold you.

At this point in your life you were not making conscious decisions to use power. You were simply acting in a way that worked. You were responding to your needs with an action that got you relief.

This kind of lesson about power is not cognitive. There is nothing rational about it. You have learned these lessons on the most animal of levels. These kind of lessons are hard to dispel when your rational, logical self comes into play.

To understand more about this aspect of the mind you may consider doing some reading in developmental psychology and neuro-lingusitic programming (NLP).

But to see where the myths come into play, we must understand that at some point, early in our lives, whether that was our mother or caregiver or someone else - someone chose not to respond to our cries for help. Someone chose not to give us what we wanted.

Our first power struggle...

No matter how many power struggles we may have won to that point, oblivious to their existence, when one of the persons ruling our lives decided that we were not going to have our way - we were going to have to learn to endulge our suffering - we lost our first power struggle. At that point, because we could not satisfy our need ourselves, we became aware of the power others had over us. Our need was unbearable and we submitted. In that first submission was born the practice of locating power outside ourselves. Power was something that someone else had.

And the lessons continued from there. As we grew and found ourselves trying to get what we wanted, using different strategies, with different people in our lives, we had that lesson reinforced. Power is out there. It is something parents, teachers, adults had. Our job was to learn how to get our own.

As we matured we began the bargaining and negotiation that became common in our everyday life.

Soon, as teenagers, we learned that many of the authorities of our lives could be overcome. Parents and Teachers could not use force. Rebellion and challenge were tools that worked. We learned instinctively what our parents and families wanted from us and we used it to create our own power. It countered the power we were subject to and we began to be powerful.

We learned about independence. We learned about manipulation. We learned about lying and information control. We were able to use power.

But we did not call it power. And we did not see how it was about the need of the subject that created the power we had rather than the skill or possession we used.

In fact, what we learned was that unless we had something they wanted we had no power. So we continued our lessons of thinking that power was something "out there" by gaining knowledge and money and learning to use our abilities to get results. Always thinking that it was what we had or could do that gave us power.

So as adults we have come to believe that the source of power is wealth, or public office, or authority, or strength, or knowledge, or beauty or any number of other things.

Our lessons have taught us that sometimes power works and sometimes it doesn't.

It is in that lesson that we can learn the most important lesson.

Why doesn't power work when we think it should? Why does beauty sometimes get us what we want and other times doesn't? Why is it that sometimes having money is all it takes to get your way but sometimes people seem to be able to over come it? Why is it that sometimes people are willing to suffer - even die - rather than submit to force? Why is it that sometimes even the president of a nation should be afraid?

Because the power does not reside in the thing. There is no power in money. There is no power in authority. There is no power in beauty or sex. There is no power in brute strength or the ability to implement an army.

The power is in our requirement for money - in our world you have money or you die. The power is in our need for order and predictability in our society - without social order shaos and destruction results. It is in our drive for sex and our desire of beauty. The power is in our attachment to survival.

The power is in the need.

The baby needed to have her diaper changed. The mother had the ability to do it. The baby wanted the mother to chose to change her diaper. So time and again, the mother responded and changed the diaper.

Because she needed to be a good mother.

The baby used her ability to cry to upset the mother into thinking she was not being a good mother. The mothers need was more pressing than the baby's. The baby won.

But soon the mother knew that if the baby had to wait for a diaper change, the baby would be fine. And she was still a good mother. So, the baby was forced to wait. The mother won the power struggle.

The feelings of power - control, influence or seduction - are stimulated by feelings of motivation - anger, fear or excitement - they are created by needs - requirements, desires and attachments - which are subject to abilities - mechanisms of power.

The source of power is need. Without the need there is no power.

It is not an external thing, or force, held or possessed by someone else. The power against us is created in the needs we have - the requirements, desires and attachments we feel.

Power is not real. Control is an illusion. Every feeling of power be it control, influence or seduction is not real. It is simply a feeling. A construct of the mind. That mental creation is having an impact on the choices we make. This is because at that primal mental level we are just babies trying to alleviate suffering. But when we try to rise to a level of cognitive life - deliberate living - we take back choice. There is always a choice to be made. The act of Choice is true power.

On the other hand, Needs are real. That is why there can be such a thing as power. It is the core of our nature. Our life is the journey from need to need. Meeting other persons making the same journey. Seeking to alleviate their suffering. Seeking to satisfy their needs.

It is that journey that creates the possibility for power.

The source of power is need.

Of course there is a hope...

When we accept our needs and the needs of others as the reality we are here to address - the purpose of this life - we will likely stop the utilization of power and begin the application of compassion.

Control is an Illusion

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

We locate power "out there."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it is still power.

Power is not absolute. Control is an illusion.

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

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

Power is never perfect. Power is never absolute.

That is because choice never goes away.

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

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

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

It is no less power because it failed.

Power is simply a response to the circumstances.

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

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

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

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

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

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

So on to Question Two...



What is the Source of Power?


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

Needs are experienced as Requirements, Desires, and Attachments.

Needs are Complex, Compounding and Competing.

The Seven Questions and Answers

When trying to learn about power it is hard to find a place to begin.

Our lives are hip-deep in power dynamics - there is no shortage of things we can talk about.

Events, news, relationships, work and play all seem to have power in them. Power dynamics spin around you like bees on clover. Round and round. Never ending. Always there. Not slow enough to get a real picture of what is happening. But never so fast that we lose sight of it. Control, Influence and Seduction - the dynamics of your relationships - Pushing, Pointing and Pulling you round and round. Frustrating and confusing. Never ending. No way to stop it long enough to get a good look...

Finding that first thing to get a handle on - to stop the spinning - now that's a tough one.

You can see the power. You can feel it even more. You see it in the way everyone treats you. And you see it in the way you treat others. You know it begins and ends somewhere but you can't find that break.

There must be a seam in this web of power you are caught it. But where is it?

I offer you the Seven Questions and Answers On Having Power.

Question One

Where do I start?


Start with Absolute Truth.
Control is an Illusion.
The only thing we control is how we respond to the circumstance before us.
If it is true for us, it is true for them.
What are they responding to?
They are responding to the Source of Power.

Let's start at the beginning...

Introduction to Power

It's everywhere. It's in every relationship you have. It's in every interaction with other people. When it isn't being used you still are aware of its potential. You can see it. You can feel it. You are surrounded by it. You want it. Yet you want to avoid it. You are disgusted by it. But you are also enticed and seduced. You see the genius in it. You see the hope and promise. You see the corruption - the horror. You have read about it. You have looked at artwork that embodies it. You sing songs and listen to music about it. Every movie ever made is about it. Every book ever written is about the quest for it. History is the story of it. Almost everything people do is in someway a small attempt to fight it, or attain it.

Power - strength, sway, clout, influence, control, chi, might, puissance, supremacy, dominance, seduction, persuasion, might, say, potency - power.

It is the drive to create the self.

It is the hope to be more than everyone else.

It is the quest for power.

It has many faces and forms: wealth, resource, strength, weaponry, knowledge, ability, skill, friends, allies, authority, love, beauty, charisma, salvation, hope.

Each with the ability to affect the Choice one might make.

Those who have it, the powerful, use it to control, influence or seduce anyone who might serve their purpose. And they are never satisfied with how much they have. They desire more.

Those subject to it, the rest of us, resist, revolt and reject it as corrupt and detestable. Yet still wrestle and toil in the faint hope that we may acquire our own.

Everyone uses it when they can. It is the tool of more than dictators, tyrants and generals. Mothers use it with their children. Priests use it with their parishioners. Lovers use it with their suitors. Teachers use it with their students. CEOs use it with their employees. Presidents use it with their people.

We spend our days using power. Or seeking power. Or resisting power. Or avoiding power. It is in the very nature of our beings. We are obsessed and saturated.

We can use it and abuse it. But do we understand it?

Where does it come from?

How does it work?

What is it really? What is this dynamic of power?

You are probably just like everyone else reading this.

Your career moves forward but you are unsure how. It certainly does not move fast enough or in the direction you want.

Your relationships bring as much pain as they do happiness. Friendships, family ties and loving partnerships all reduce into power struggles.

Romance is more of a game than a source of fulfillment.

You are tired of feeling pushed and pulled and pointed in a thousand directions. Your life is controlled and influenced and seduced by so many forces and so many people. You have lost count. You are powerless. You are afraid. You are exhausted. You feel helpless. You feel frustrated. You are angry.

These are the feelings of Power.

Power is about Choice.

Power is about Needs and Abilities.

Power is about control, influence and seduction.

Power destroys trust.

These ideas, insights and methods are for you.

This is your course on having power.

Now

Choice is something that happens in the now. So power exists only in the now.

In the instant the choice is made, you will know whether or not power has succeeded. You will know which power forces have been dominant. It is in the choice itself, that power comes to life.

It is in the now that power succeeds of fails.

The causes and conditions that lead to the now are limitless. You can not fathom the chain of events and all the subtlies that have created the moment you are in. There is no need to try.

The future and the past just illusions.

Control is an illusion. The only thing you control is what you do right now

And it is in this moment, this now, that you make a choice. Within the process of power, the now is the only thing that is real.

Somewhere in that process, some actor has decided to try to influence your choice in some way. And in doing so they have created a situation in which their ability gets applied to your need to try to stimulate in you feelings of control, influence or seduction.

These feelings motivate you to make a choice that will somehow assist the actor. Although those feelings can motivate by tapping into fear and excitement, and although you may feel pushed, pulled and pointed, the choice remains yours.

The moment of choice does not disappear. The choice itself does not disappear. And that choice is yours.

Power is planned for the future. It builds and rises and accelerates. It requires the future. The promise or threat of the future is what makes us willing to comply. But none of that is real yet. All that is real is the now. The moment of choice arrives. And in that moment power is felt. But it is not real. It is an illusion.

It is it's confinement to the now that makes power vulnerable.

If you can see the illusion of the promise or threat, if you can see the only truth in the present moment, if you can see the true power in the moment of choice, then power remains yours.


To control others is strength,
But to control yourself is true power.

LaoTzu
Tao Te Ching

Gen "Y" Not?

Why not?

Really, why not?

The sense of powerlessness comes from being controlled and dismissed for too long.

It is true that many of our western institutions and structures are so well established that to even question them gets a reaction of harsh criticism. But that does not mean that we shouldn't question them.

You have been raised in a rich protected time. You have been given so much that you feel satiated. But in this process you have been controlled and you feel like there is no point in trying anything new. There is no value in stepping out of the box.

Everything I could want is in the box - why would I leave?

Because there is one thing that is missing - happiness.

You are not happy or you would not be running to IM's, PS2's, movies, music, sex, porn, drugs and drinks.

You think you are controlled and that any claim to change is pointless.

That is power. And the absolute truth of power is simple;

Control is an Illusion. The only thing you control is how you respond to the circumstance which is before you.

So respond.

You think that you can't make a difference so you walk away and get drunk. You go play a game. You go find someone you love and hide away having sex.

That is not responding. That is hiding. That is not living. You were born to live. Just like everyone before you. And everyone that will follow you.

Wake up! Control is an illusion.

So is your fear.

A smart man once encouraged the questioning of all things.

Not a politician. Not a rebel. Not a trouble maker. A spiritual teacher.

"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it...Or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings--that's good doctrine. Believe it and cling to it, and take it as your guide." Siddhartha Gotama Buddha



The control you feel is an illusion.

There is more to be had.

You have power.

Accept it.

Deal with it.

Gen "Y"... Bother?

Check out the link in the name of the post..


You asked...?

"Y" did you ask...?

Because deep within you there is hope and desire and you need to release it.

So here is my answer.

Y

I am Disengaged.

I want to be unique and understood.

Existing labels and world directions don't fit me. Our lives are defined for us and we wonder what we can do about it. We wonder- why try to do anything about?

Xbox and movies look so good. Better than my life. Unless, of course, I drop a little ecstacy...

Let Me Be Numb - I don't like to think about this crap.

Things in this world are bigger, better, hotter, faster, tastier, sexier and still not really enough to make me happy or motivate me to do anything about it.

Sound familiar.

AIDS, Terrorism, World Wide War, Globalization, New World Order

All things are in motion - corporations, governments, people with power - and there is nothing to be done about them. If there is something to be done about them, it needs to be done by someone else - maybe government. Maybe parents. Maybe God.

But what the hell can I do?

I am only one person... and me and my friends don't even talk about this stuff.

We talk all the time though. We have cell phones and four kinds of IM and text messages. We see each other in the morning by 8 and we stay in touch till we crash at midnight. Then get up and do it all again. We talk all the time about the same things over and over. Never about change, cause things don't change - do they? They have always been this way.

All that history shit is behind us. It's just history.

There are too many people who have control.

We are told to let other people worry about it. We are told to go to school - sports - dance clubs - whatever...as long as we stay out of the way. When we do stay out of the way, we get stuff - lots of stuff - tons of stuff - so much stuff I have no idea what I have...anyway - I have what I want and I hope nothing really horrible comes down. I couldn't handle it.

Really dude, why bother?

Because the world is no less yours than anyone elses and everybody up to this point has fucked it up good. It's your turn. :)

Difference is - you are probably smarter and have more resources than anyone before you. You could probably fix it if you really wanted to.

But you have forgotten that.

You have forgotten that you have as much power as anyone ever had. More really. But you don't see it.

But here it is.

Here is your course on having power.

Hope you do it better than those before you.

"Y" Bother?

Cause it's yours now - and you can't make it any worse can you?

True Love

Click the title of this blog for quotes on true love...

How does power help us find true love?

It doesn't. In fact it leads us away from it.

I can't tell you what true love is.

I believe I have had it. Lived it. Revelled in it. Been crushed by it.

I think I would know it if I saw it.

True love isn't perfect or always pleasant... but it is true.

But to answer the question I don't think I need to be able to describe the mechanics of love. I don't even think that is possible. Love - true love - is that which is beyond this life - this physical experience. True love is that which permiates all beautiful, joyful things. It is ever present and available to come into our lives.

However this life is something that must be accepted and lived. It is to be learned and overcome. Available in this life is an abundance of love.

Also within this life there is an abundance of power relationships.

I do know power.

I know the source of all power is need.

I know we all need love. We seek it. We yearn for it. We fight to get it. We cling to it. We pine for it when it leaves. We require it. We desire it. And we are attached to it.

I know that the promise of true love - deep unlimited and unconditional love - love of the soul - love that goes beyond the here and now of this life - love that brings the ecstacy of the beyond - love that is the purest of connections - that love, is probably the greatest mechanism of power there is.

There is really nothing we want more than that kind of love.

The promise of that love will control, influence and seduce us like nothing else.

And we know it will have the same effect on others.

Power is the exploitation of another person's need to gain some advantage.

True love will take joy in the happiness of all people. Not just the happiness of the actor.

To use power to find true love, to use power to motivate others to help us find it or to give it to us, is like using a pin to find a balloon.

You know you found it when you have destroyed it.

Power destroys trust.

We would trust nothing more than true love. We trust no one more than those who truly love us.

Unfortunately, we seek true love without the ability to describe it unless we are looking at it. And we use power everyday, even in our most loving relationships.

I am sure we have all used power to pop the balloon of true love a few times without meaning to. And we have suffered the pain which follows.

I can offer two things I've learned.

First - sometimes we use power when we don't want to. This is just a bad habit that is hard to break. We need to be gentle and forgiving with others and ourselves. And just because someone used power on you doesn't mean they don't love you. It sounds paradoxical, but in that same use of power on you, they used it on themselves. They hurt themselves as much as they hurt you. That is hard to forgive.

Second - you can never have love if you chose to use power. True love requires true power.

True power is the complete self-control of your own needs so as to depower all others. It is the ability to see through the illusion of your needs and rise above. No one will have power over you because you do not have any need that you do not understand and have the ability to control. Because of this ability, not only will you never be a subject of power, but you will never act like an actor.

True power is the ability to be free of all power.

True love is not about needing someone. True love is to take joy in someone. Joy that sees and accepts and loves the weakness, flaws and failures of that other. It sees the beauty of the flaws and failures. It sees the struggle and the quest and the inability to attain perfection as the best reason to love perfectly. It holds the realization that loving them is never a cost to us. It is always a fulfillment. It is always good to love - even when it hurts.

True love and true power require the purest of compassion.

Then no matter what happens, no matter what we get, no matter how they love us back, all is joy.

Ya, easily said...

It's an incredible, intimidating, heart-breaking quest...

Compelling and fleeting...

But what else are we here for?

Are you there?

Consider it my need.

Consider it your power over me.

If you are reading this, please do two things.

First, post a short comment. Let me know you are there.

Second, if you see something here that is worth thinking about, share it with someone. Send this link to a friend that may benefit from thinking about power.

Cheers

People Need People

The Source of Power is Need.

Overcome Need, and you overcome Power.

Living this however, is not so simple.

Sometimes we just need others.

A kind word. A loving embrace. Someone standing behind us just in case....

No one wants to be alone all the time.

No one can do everything for themselves.

No one can satisfy all of their needs by themselves.

It is good to control your needs. To be clear about what you really need.

Understanding that which is a requirement or a desire. Seeing how we are attached to people and ideas. Recognizing how how our attachments hurt us and create the suffering we live. This is a good start to overcoming power. It is how we will get power out of our relationships. It is how we find true love and compassion. It is how we live in peace.

However...

Needing others is real and necessary.

Yet it is not the needing that is wrong. It is the way we need. The way we insist on our needs. The way we are attached to our attachments.

Overcoming power is overcoming need. But that does not mean living as an insensitive hermit.

One can still hold a need and have overcome it.

People need people.

It is being too attached to just one or two that leads to pain.

People are wonderful.

Nothing comes to us except through other people.

But there are a good six billion out there to chose from.

Go crazy...

Fear and Terrorism

So on the day I decide to discuss fear, we have a terrorist attack in London.

Here is a power based analysis of Terrorism.

Terrorism is all about power.

Terror. Fear of a possible random imposition of pain or death resulting from an act of violence by a perceived enemy.

Terror can be used as a type of power interaction to affect the choices made by others.

Usually it is targeted at rulers or those with the ability to make decisions which affect the terror user. Therefore they can include heads of corporations.

Remember – power is personal. It is not abstract. It is about people by people.

However like any power dynamic, the power comes from the emotional response to a help or hinder ability on the part of the actor against the need of the subject. That help or hinder ability does not have to be actual and executed. It is sufficient if it is applied in degrees or not at all. It can be no more than a believable threat or promise.

And the help or hinder effect does not have to be direct to the subject. It may be applied to someone the subject is attached to or is competing with.

Therefore, terror can generate feelings of control, influence or seduction when it is nothing more than a credible threat to hurt the basic requirement of life in someone the subject cares about.

And we can care about those we do not know.

A politician has as great an obligation to care for those they do not know as they do to those they do know. Heads of corporations can care about many people whether or not they are shareholders or customers.

Along with the feelings of power, - control, influence and seduction, - there will be feelings of anger as well as feelings of fear. Fear is created when the power dynamic is anticipated.

Fear is a strong motivator. It focuses on Requirements. Those are the Needs which are about human survival and avoidance of pain. These are Needs we are compelled to satisfy without thought or intention. Our instincts and reflexes will typically be sufficient.

Hence we can understand why our immediate reaction to terrorism is with fear, violence and usually some small amount of compromise.

Terrorist. One who has the ability and willingness to impose a random act of violence resulting in pain or death of a targeted enemy. Typically we see them as the Actor in the power dynamic. They are ones who have decided to use power to get what they are looking for.

The BiPolar Nature of the power dynamic tells us that they are using power because they want something from the Subject. They want to have some control, influence or seduction over something the Subject may do, say or think. That is their need. That is their motivation to use power.

So we see terrorism as an act by an actor against the needs of us, the subjects, to get us to choose to do something differently and ultimately in their benefit.

Our need to be free of random acts of violence, our need for survival, our need for avoidance of pain, is the source of the power the terrorist has over us.

That something that they want from us – the reason they are using power – is our source of power over them. Their need is our source of power.

So what do they want and how can we use it?

Unfortunately we do not conduct this analysis. We stop thinking at the imposition of their violent act and respond with violence of our own. Thus we actually lose the opportunity to have power over them. We rely on their need for survival and avoidance of pain – direct or indirect – as means of creating power. Unfortunately, they are willing to lose their lives. They are willing to sacrifice for their real goal. They willingly suffer pain to get what they really want.

So what do they want?

A more important question is why don’t we spend time answering this question rather than responding with meaningless and ineffective violence of our own?

Our responsive violence is not working. In fact it obviously only makes it worse.


Terrorist Act. The imposition of random violence intended to create fear. Usually motivated by political, moral, cultural or financial goals on the part of the Actor.

The Bipolar nature of the power dynamic tells us that they want something. What is it that they want? They are motivated by moral, cultural, political and financial needs.

Of course those who are on the other side of this power dynamic see it differently. They don’t see themselves as the Actors. They see themselves as the Subjects. They are subjects responding to the power imposed upon them.

They say that foreign governments wanted to control their geography for military reasons. Foreign governments wanted to have free access to their resources at less than fair market value. They say that foreigners wanted to sell their goods in our markets without concern or care for our culture and heritage.

They say as a result of these wants of foreign governments and the willing greed of a few in their home land they have been subject to cultural decay, wars, revolutions, coups, immorality and non-democratic governments bought and installed by foreign powers.

They want this to end. They will use power if it is necessary.

Power is bipolar. Power is about needs and abilities and choices and feelings.

Terror doesn't just happen. It comes out of an already existing power dynamic.

When we start listening and respecting, the terror will end.

Isn't that obvious?

Fear, Time and Power

I want to thank Russell, Gunther and Lex for their feedback and questions. This post is generated by their thoughts.

Time is like a funnel. All things must pass through it. The opening is small and there are no other paths. If you want it to go faster it cannot. If you want it to go slower it cannot. No matter how much there is to go through, only so much can pass through at a time. When it is your turn to pass though, you have no option but to go as all the matter above you is pressing its way through. The future pushes the present into the past.

Time makes our typical experience of life linear. It is the thread that is followed. It restricts and limits the flow of our lives into a continuous stream of moments of Now.

Time is the context in which we experience needs.

Needs always exist. They rise and fall in their presence or priority in our mind, but they never go away. When one is fulfilled another follows in its place. We are constantly grasping and clinging and seeking and searching.

We experience our needs within the flow of time. Time forces us to prioritize our needs. We must answer the question – Which need is most important right now? Time not only forces us to, but facilitates our ability to, place our needs in an order or sequence of satisfaction. Living within the realm of time has taught us that. So much of our life is spent in the juggling of needs. The rest is spent in the addressing of needs.

Power uses needs.

Power is the exploitation of ones’ needs to motivate a favorable response. An actor uses the needs of a subject to get what they want. But the mere existence of needs is not enough to create power. There must be an ability on the part of the actor to help or hinder that need. This is a mechanism of power. The Actor uses a mechanism of power against a need to create an emotional state in the subject that requires resolution within that moment. That resolution the actor seeks is a response favorable to them. Power is created when a subject is forced to chose according to the wishes of the actor.

Power uses emotion.

The feelings of power are control, influence and seduction. The Push, the Point and the Pull. This is our experience when we are subject to power dynamics of others. These are the feeling we wish to generate when we use power ourselves.

These feelings of power are always accompanied by the feelings of motivation. Usually we will feel fear or anger or excitement when we are within a power dynamic. Often we will feel all three or a combination of two.

Anger is that feeling of encroachment. We are wanting something we cannot have. Someone is taking away our ability to chose what we want. Be it a desire, a requirement or an attachment, when we are subject to another’s ability to help or hinder the satisfaction of that need, we are usually angry. And usually it shows. It is a residual emotion because it is linked to one of the feelings of power. We are angry because we are being controlled or influenced or even seduced, into making choices we would not otherwise make.

Anger is the encroachment of the self by the will and ability of another.

It is a dangerous emotion and only useful if we use it as a marker of power dynamics. It is the sign that tells us power is happening.

Fear is the first of the anticipation feelings of power. The other is excitement. Fear is negative anticipation; excitement is positive anticipation. Fear usually creates feelings of control. Excitement usually creates feelings of seduction.

In that emotional state of fear, we can see the imminent failure of our wants and needs and we must react to keep it from happening. We expect that the actor will have the ability to hinder our needs, or help others attain their needs at a cost to us. We are afraid that our requirements of survival or avoidance of pain are at risk. We fear that our desires cannot be met, or will be restricted in their success by another person who is using their ability to impact that desire. We are concerned, in varying degrees, about those things, people and ideas to which we are attached. Fear is the awareness that our needs will be somehow compromised or hurt by the ability of the actor, so we prepare ourselves to be subjected to those feelings of control, influence and seduction.

Fear gets us ready to respond to power.

Fear is the anticipation of the encroachment of the self by the will and ability of another.

Excitement is the enjoyable feeling of anticipated power. It is the anticipation of getting something we require or desire or are attached to. It is the sense of impending satisfaction and pleasure. It is the awareness of coming closer to our dreams and wishes. It is the arousal of appetite and desire. It is the imminent satisfaction of the self. It is the knowledge that the actor has the ability to help us. It is the knowledge that the actor is about to satisfy our need.

However it is a conditional satisfaction. There will be a price. Excitement often overcomes the any sense of cost. That is exactly why excitement is motivating. Excitement overwhelms our rational self with its own desires.

Excitement is the anticipation of the fulfillment of the self by the will and ability of another.



Power uses time.

Anger, fear and excitement are the emotions of power which are triggered by time structures of our life

These are the emotions that when coupled with the limiting and demanding effects of time, force a response.

All we experience is a single moment at a time – the Now. In each of those moments are choices to make. The choices are being demanded by the circumstances and the events of those circumstances. A powerful person will respond to those circumstances by applying a mechanism against a need you are experiencing in that moment. Sometimes the need is already there and present in that circumstance. Sometimes that need is not part of the circumstance but is brought forward by the words or actions of the Actor. Whether the need is present or brought forward, the application of the mechanism to the need generates emotions in you. Usually it is a feeling of Control, Influence or Seduction and that feeling of power is accompanied by a feeling of motivation. Maybe fear, maybe anger or maybe excitement.

These feelings are pushed through the funnel of time by time. They must go through and they must be addressed.

Power is a recipe of Need, Ability, Time and Emotion. All brought together as a technique to satisfy the needs of the actor.

Power comes from the exploitation of need by an ability within a moment of time creating an emotion that motivates a choice.

And it is all an illusion.

Control is an illusion.

Fear is an illusion

Excitement is an illusion.

Anger is an erosion of the soul based on an illusion.

It is all illusion.

Choice never goes away.

Time will see to that.

For we only live a moment at a time. No one can really take away the moment. No one can really take away the choice.

Power is a very effective illusion. It only exists in the emotion of the moment.

Remember that fear, excitement and anger are emotions resulting from stimuli. They are feelings. And like all of power they are not real. All of this is amplified and stirred by the flow of time. Less time results in more power. More time results in less power. The more the time allowed the more likely we will find another option or overcome the pressing nature of the need. With time we can recognize power and address it.

That is why the method requires a pause, a step back, a detachment from the immediate and an analysis of the dynamic.

Conquer the emotion so that you can conquer the need. In that act of will and self control, free choice is revived and power is defeated.

Children

Although they are only learning, children tend to be the best at power plays.

I suppose if you were raised by parents who spent most of their time negotiating with you to do what they wanted you to do, you would learn power well. And that is what parents do.

If you want to learn about the basics of power, watch children. They are not very good at masking their efforts. The power dynamics they implement are often transparent. But it is truely a basic course in power.

They are very aware of what they want. They pursue what they want knowing your role in attaining it. They also know your needs. They know the buttons to push.

Right now my son wants to go out and play soccer. I am trying to write.

Although I use my authority and say, "Go out and play." He keeps coming back in. He knows that he is getting to me. He knows that I want to be a good Dad. He doesn't have to just keep asking me. He doesn't have to disturb me.

He just has to say, "Dad, don't you want to play with your son?"

Now I'm cooked. My son knows more about power than me.....

See you later.

Rights and Power

This is huge.

However it is complicated. Like multiple- step power dynamics in which the needs and dynamics are complex and competing, the idea of rights are protected by a web of power dynamics.

There are those who define rights as something given and protected by a government. We are somehow beholding to our governors as they have the ability to determmine what our rights will be from time to time. This is the underlying premise in the present versions of anti-terrorist legislation. This inherently means that a right is something given and therefore can, in particular circumstances, be taken away.

There are others who believe that a right is something one possesses from birth, by virtue of their birth, and flows from natural law or god's law. Like hair color, or height, like fingers and toes, it is an attribute of being human. From the moment of birth we have rights. More importantly, they believe that from the moment of birth their value as a human being is equal to any one else's. And that value and right are to be protected by all.

How can one claim to have a right if they are unwilling to protect the rights of others? How can something be a right if it is not a right to all? If it is not an entitlement of all, then it is simply a priviledge. And priviledges come and go. They are subject to the will of others.

Rights are rights and they have nothing to do with government.

Rights are therefore inalienable. You can never loose them. And certainly no other human being has the power to say whether or not you are entitled to your's. Simply they can not be taken away. Unless you let them. And the only reason you would let them is becusase you have a need they can help you with. That is power.

Oh, we have many reasons to think it is acceptable to take them away. Today we justify that infringement on the basis of protection.

That's what the king of England said when people wanted rights in the new world. "I need to tax you to take care of you. So you need to be subject to my will though I am across the ocean."

Paternalistic. Patronizing. And just plain false.

So a group of american settlers said - "No."

A war was fought. People died. Freedom won.

And those great humble souls wrote a document to ensure that this would never happen again.

Now the leaders of that nation are being paternalistic, patronizing and false.

Those rights are being taken away on the premise that somehow they were given.

The first real land of freedom and rights is the place where they are being taken away.

Enough people agree because they have been scared. Fear. The requirement of survival is a powerful need to tap into. It is very motivating. And those who can use it by having mechanisms to help or hinder it ( like armies, police, jails and courts) are able to exert a significant degree of control, influence and seduction.

They will point at people like me and say I am the reason we can't properly protect the people. I am trying to protect rights and remove power. But they want their power. They want to control you. There is a bigger picture here most people don't see. This is because they have successfully triggered the need and offered a mechanism.

They refuse to ask why we are being threatened. Until that question is asked and answered honestly, there will be the steady erosion of rights here in the land of the free.

To control the questions being asked is a significant mechanism. Information is the ultimate mechanism. For whatever we do, we do it for reasons. The ability to reason is based on information. False information will change what you do. It will change what you think you should do.

We are threatened because we have intruded into the rights of others in other lands. They do not want our culture any more than we want theirs.

But we want their markets because there is more money to be made. We want their resources because that is how we make money. Those with money want more money. It is another incredible mechanism of power. It can be used to control influence and seduce. People love power.

Money buys advertising. Advertising controls information. Information is what we use to cast a vote. Those who have the money can get those who want votes, to do anything. They need more money. They need foreign markets and resources to get it. They need votes and those with money can use that ability to influence to gain the votes.

Needs and abilities. This is the core of power. This is how power comes to life.

You have a right to truth. You have a right to be governed as little as posible. You have the right to act, think and speak as you see fit. And you have the right and responsibility to make sure everyone enjoys that right.

We have empowered government. They are entrusted to protect our rights. We gave them the authority. Authority is nothing but power by consent. We need to have people to protect our rights. We need people to make rules for our way of life so we might all get along in a safe predictable environment. We need this. So we give the ability to elected officials.

This is a mammoth duty. A duty that people should see as intimidating and onerous. One people should be afraid of.

However, they see it as an opportunity. They see it as something to pursue. Our culture, though founded in the protection of rights, has turned into nothing more than the pursuit of power. No longer is it the pursuit of happiness for all. In fact, we think we can take peoples' god given rights away to make sure some of us get to have our happiness in whatever way we want.

Rights are a good reason to create government. It is a good idea to make it their duty to protect them. We need that task cared for. Never did we intend for government - power by consent - to conceive that they had the ability to take rights away.

We are no longer the land of the free. But will we be the home of the brave? Will we stand up and say a right is a right. Hey you governors - you are just men who want to take those rights away. I don't care why you think you can take them away. I don't care that you can force this on me. There have been evil rulers before. There will be again. We must stand up to people like you. I have learned this lesson before - the hard way.

We are not another version of the Roman, Greek, or Chinese empires. We are the people who believe in rights as god given. We are the people you may call names and try to marginalize. We are the people you may harrass. But we are the people who won't go away. We didn't go away in 1776. We aren't going away today.

I am not liberal, conservative, communist or anarchist. I am a freedom-ist. I believe in the rights we have from birth. I believe power is the only true threat to freedom and our rights as humans.

We gave you the power to take care of our needs. If you are going to use those needs as a means to lie to us, manipulate us, control us, then you do not deserve the power we gave you.

Needs and abilities.

We still need them to take care of our rights. They still need us to cooperate and do as we are told.

Needs and abilties. We have power too.

Rights and Power

tomorrow...