We often associate power with strength, dominance and masculinity.
The characteristics of strength and masculinity are mostly connected with a character’s physical prowess, whereas dominance is related to a character’s inner ability and potential to exercise pressure.
As human beings, we find ourselves drawn towards the moral implications of exerting power inefficiently or the justifications behind power being used as a destructive force. We fail to look towards the cause of power and tacitly admire the benefits it brings or the destruction it produces. We then collectively go on to support or angrily express our disapproval at the outcome of using such a commanding, and potentially unethical device. Our natural instincts lead us to criticise the person in control but never ourselves, and this is a failure of our own human ability to admit or declare our mistakes.
But why is it that we should blame ourselves?
What we must understand first is that there are two different types of power. There is Electoral power and there is Knowledge, and in conjunction with these there are three further principles we must acknowledge in order to determine power:
1) Power is not created, it is given.
2) The use of opportunity to determine power is based on how a person views the importance or non-importance of life.
3) Knowledge is everything.
I shall now elaborate
Electoral power is a fundamental democratic tool and is exerted in 123 countries worldwide. Presidents, leaders and prime ministers do not create the power to govern a nation, it is passed down to them through the understanding that all humans are equal and therefore have equal influence in determining who should obtain power. This forms the first principle: power is not created, it is given.
But here is the mistake, the common belief is that we each have power which when joined together forms a greater power. This is incorrect. What we have is simply an opportunity. The opportunity to prevent destruction and immorality or the opportunity to offer a path towards death. It is opportunity that when collectively put together translates into power.
The greater debate is that citizens have the choice to decide whether or not they use their opportunity. It should however, be a fundamental principle that citizens exert a democratic force. Since what we are voting for is not power, we are voting for life or death.
It never occurs to the freeman/woman that denying opportunity further divides society. Our Establishment have put in place a system where citizens have been persuaded to disregard the fact that opportunity is not just a gift, it is a right. As a population what we must begin to endorse is that through opportunity we can prevent the exploitation of that superior power of deciding life or death.
However, the majority fail to recognise misuses of power because they have been manipulated into accepting that dominance is a key characteristic needed for someone to inherit authority. Let me explain; people are reluctant to elect a weak leader. Someone who cannot control a party has no authority and therefore lacks dominance. This leads us to believe that they also lack knowledge, support and allies and so collectively, we begin to choose characters who exert a dictatorial force. This is what has prevailed citizens to believe that anyone who is strong, commanding or dominant deserves leadership and ultimately their vote.
What we fail to understand is that dominance is violence and violence leads to death. Dictatorships exist because we have mistakenly elected leaders based on the belief that they could dominate the world. However, as we have seen throughout history, dictatorial leadership leads to censoring, the abolition of human rights and death. Using your opportunity to elect a loathsome leader means you are ultimately advocating death.
Failure to accept opportunity is an immoral decision to make as individuals. Essentially, it is a denial of the potential influence we have to control how power is distributed and used. This action fundamentally authorises a leader to ignore your beliefs, values and traditions. It has been the rapid decline in the use of opportunity that has concentrated power in the hands of totalitarian leaders. To prevent this, we must force a change, but instead the majority have fallen into the habit of just accepting an outcome and allowing a powerful minority to be created. By falling into this trap, you are forfeiting your right to equality and someone else’s right to live. This forms the second principle: the use of opportunity to determine power is based on how a person views the importance or non-importance of life.
We should all recognise that life and the existence of life is the most important, prominent and remarkable endowment in our universe. Understanding this and acknowledging why we need to accept opportunity makes knowledge a form of power too. Knowledge is based on the ability to understand that life is the greatest gift. And with this comes the acknowledgement that using your opportunity to deny someone this right, is fundamentally wrong. If we base our morals on the fact that causing death is the most brutal and abhorrent force that human kind could ever obtain, then we begin to understand that opportunity can guide us away from destruction.
Many may associate knowledge with being omniscient or omnipresent. However, knowledge covers three main aspects of human existence; life, death and peace. Knowledge is the fundamental understanding that life is the greatest power, peace is strength, and causing death is loathsome. Understanding the basis of human existence and allowing this to influence your use of opportunity to promote life and promote that death is fundamentally wrong, makes knowledge a great power. This forms our third principle: Knowledge is everything.
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