Power

Power is interesting. On the idiot daytime talk shows, everyone rambles on about being "empowered." What the hell does that mean? If I get a nose job, does that do it? If the government agrees to fund my project, is that empowering? Why? Because it "allows" me to act? Why do I need all this crap in order to act on my own behalf? Why do I need someone else's permission?

Look at any master-slave relationship. And it really doesn't have to be that drastic. Think about you and your boss, or you and your professor, or you and a cop. These authority figures are really just people. Their authority doesn't turn them into something else or give them god-like supernatural powers. They have power over you because you give it to them. You agree to be the slave in the master-slave relationship.

These relationships can be based on recognizing another person's superiority -- "He knows more than I do." Or on a person's experience -- You may want to let Grandma tell you how to cook the turkey. Or because of socialization -- We learn to respect the law and law enforcement officers. (And besides that, they're armed.)

I've known some very messed up women in abusive relationships. Got an email from one that said, "Bob's at work, so now you don't have to be afraid to talk."

How odd that she was projecting her neurosis onto me. I was never afraid to talk. Bob understood, too, that if he raised a hand to me, or called me the names he called his wife, he'd probably get back a whole lot worse than he was giving. Bob left me alone pretty much. The difference between me and his wife was that she gave him power over her and I didn't.

What's the pay-off with this kind of arrangement? Bob paid the bills... sometimes, when he didn't drink or gamble away his paycheck. I suppose you could say Bob gave this woman a family and a home, although most nice guys are fertile, too, and personally, I'd rather live alone in a tent down by the river. Bob also had her convinced that she was stupid, incompetent, helpless without him, and had no capacity to make her own decisions. She must have believed this about herself to make herself Bob's willing slave.

In modern politics, it's the liberals mostly who seize the master role, regarding the general population as being rather stupid, unable to manage our own affairs, and with no capacity to make our own decisions. Therefore, they nobly assume the burden of "taking care" of us all, deciding "the public good."

(I once asked a friend, "Why the hell does Al Gore talk to us like we're all stupid and don't understand big words?" My friend said, "Well, that's how he sees us, isn't it?")

But the US was founded so that we could "live by our own lights" and each determine our own concept of "good." Religious freedom, freedom of speech and all that. That was the result of The Enlightenment.

Now Nancy Pelosi has decided that I need an ATV trail. Or need to build one. Or need to pay to build one. Wrong on all counts.

The state of New York was considering a bill to tax soda pop with sugar in it. It's for the citizens' own good, right? And maybe replaces some of the taxes they used to collect on tobacco, before wrecking that industry. But, hey, tobacco's bad for you. So are stairways, freeways, and lightning. What are they going to do about those? If you want, you could kill yourself on Vitamin D.

If you listen to this trash, and agree to pay for it, and even volunteer to help -- you're a little bit like my friend with the abusive husband.

You give them the power. You make yourself the slave. The only other way to get power over others is through terror and force, a method that has worked frighteningly well through much of human history...until The Enlightenment.

Gee, I hope this was empowering.