Defining Power

Here is a thought about power:

If there can truly be power, it must be known, not for what it is against, but in what it is for! To merely oppose what is perceived to be in first place is counterproductive to the emergence of new, powerful and appropriate actionable strategies. To categorize and define power as the ability to oppose, to subtract, to obstruct and harass, is a poor strategy and must be replaced by the ability to create, to add to, to construct and to encourage emulation. Ask yourself not what you are against, but what you are for. You will then become proactive and not reactive, you will pull your own weight and will lift yourself by your own bootstraps.

Here is another:

Power is the expression of ability to do. One creates power by creating things which are able to achieve. A power programmer is one who can create the solutions to problems, not the one who discovers and repairs bugs.

To point out the problems is not nearly as valuable as the ability to solve the problems. Those who solve problems, are the ones perceived as being powerful. The ones who approach a problem, not as a opportunity to repair, but as an opportunity to create new capabilities which do not create problems.

How is power used? : [Current Icons 4/9/2003 Baghdad, Iraq] -- The rope or the chain? What power brought the icon down? Was it a 50 foot rope, a ten foot ladder, an eight pound sledge-hammer or the several ton machine? While the 1st instruments were unable to bring the icon down, the heart, the desire, and the performance of the people, to use what they had, a short rope, a short ladder and a light sledge hammer. Though ineffective initially, the crowds expression of a desire and a willingness to carry out an action brought about the application of auxiliary, sympathetic power. Which led to the eventual toppling of what they considered to be the symbol of their oppression. And later when the head of the icon was dragged by the people through the streets, it was not with the chain which pulled the icon down, though it was still attached, but with the original rope; following it was a young child (symbol of the future) who applied the final insults with both of his shoes. -- MarkRogers

But the icon stood unmolested for years before the tanks and missiles showed up. -- EricHodges [Actually it was one year old, a birthday present given by the oppressor to himself.] [No, statues that had been up for decades were torn down. Many statues were toppled, not just one.]

Meaning that freedom comes only when appropriate, sympathetic force to remove the existing power to oppress, is applied to the Oppressor, the root problem, on behalf of the oppressed. To stand by, to oppose the terrible, painful requirement to resort to war, is to allow oppression to continue. This is an example of the wise use of power on behalf of a people unequipped to remove their own shackles. But also illustrative of a deep yearning for freedom which seems to reside everywhere. -- MarkRogers

The point made above: While sympathetic power was used as assistance, when the choice later was made by which instrument to drag the head of the icon through the streets, the people preferred the rope to the chain. The rope began the act, the rope finished the act.

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