Power is the water we swim in; the air we breathe. So pervasive we forget, ignore, or never even become fully aware of it.
Where does power derive from? In a just world, it comes from knowledge, mastery, excellence, and merit. In an unjust world, it comes from itself — power qua power.
What is power?
This is a work in progress:
- The ability to hack your inner People Pleaser.
- The ability to ignore feedback loops.
- The ability to accrue accolades and offload risk: Offloading risk and responsibility
- The ability to appear confident without any supporting factual basis.
- the ability to control reality.
- the ability to say something enough times that, despite insufficient evidence, you can make it become “true.”
- the ability to make other people feel crazy about your own lack of memory
- the expectation that others will read your mind and give you what you want before you even have to say it
- the assumption that anything anyone else has to do takes them only 5 minutes and can be done by anyone without special expertise. The assumption that things you have to do are arduous, time-consuming, and require excessive skill.
- Now, in the age of instant 24/7 media orgy gratification, we are sitting ducks — waiting to be hijacked every day over some deliberately manufactured crisis.
- everyone wants Power WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY
- Power is a FEELING
- power is being able to export DISCOMFORT to others.
- you keep the fun parts & “delegate” the gruntwork to underlings