Control
Power is being in control. And power is everything. Vulnerability, on the other hand, is letting other people control you. It’s an essential social skill. You cannot have social interaction without it.
But part of me doesn’t see it that way. It wants absolute control, absolute power, and to hell with other people. I am well aware that is one of my problems, something I have to work on all the time. It doesn’t make me a better person. But I think Americans feel it makes them a better nation to be in control.
I think there are parallels between personal behavior and group behavior; between psychological and social problems. We can have dysfunctional relationships towards power as individuals and groups. And now that I have said this, I believe I have said something important; so important it is obvious; once it is stated.
It’s the conflict between morality and power. This is perhaps the oldest and most basic conflict in the world, but one that is getting little attention today.
Instead, the argument has shifted. Morality has become a conflict of absolutes, not personal conflicts, which are always relative and social. In other words, it has become a matter of power; and this is not morality at all. Morality has nothing to do with power.
I know this is a shocking idea to many. As Americans, we have always confused the two. If you were right, you were successful; you had power. How else would you tell if you were right?
We destroyed the Indians; therefore we were right and they were wrong. We won WWII; we were right and the Germans and Japanese were wrong. But we know immediately this last statement is wrong, once we state it; and has to be changed somehow. We still know we are right, but why?
The answer is simple: because we are. Because we are the Chosen Nation. Other nations aren’t. We fight for the defense of The Good. The motives of other people are inferior, by definition. Naturally, other people are offended by this attitude. They can’t understand why American is acting the way it does, endangering world security.
America is in one of its insane periods, they say. And they are right, except that this insanity, like all insanities, has existed all along, in a latent state. Every once in a while it flairs up, and takes over–like right now.
The do-gooders (and I put myself in that camp) haven’t zeroed in on the problem: our grandiosity. They haven’t taken it into account because they know they can’t fight it. Americans believe they are all-powerful; and they are not giving up that belief; no matter what.
All empires have felt this way. And all empires have failed, but this does not change their attitude when they are in power, when they are in control. I think this is human nature, our social human nature.
In theory, if some wise people came from another planet, took control, and started an intense reeducation program; perhaps this dysfunctional social behavior could be changed. But instead, another race has arisen amongst us; and taken control. I know this sounds totally paranoid–but as another person has said: only the paranoid survive. They have instituted a reeducation program of their own; and it is working well.
It is working because it is working. People have fantastic skills at detecting power shifts. And once they detect a shift in power, they climb on the bandwagon. Nothing succeeds like success; and they want to succeed; they want to be right. Morality (compassion) is irrevelant.