The Grafton Voice

Power lust is born from fear. We humans are singularly helpless animals: no claws, no teeth to speak of and little speed. No wonder we look for some outside power to make us stronger, more potent then we are. Without outside power, wouldn’t we be just shivering alone in the dark, in a cave? It doesn’t matter much what the power is: it could be an omnipotent being that champions our cause; or money that buys us protection, ease and an outward show that we have access to power; it could be technology, from flint spears to nuclear bombs; or political might that one can wield that others may fear or follow.

In our bid for power, we humans have a great capacity for deluding ourselves. Though we are animals, some believe we are superior to them because God breathed his spirit into us alone. I would think being an animal would be enough, but maybe after a few nights of sitting in a dark cave listening to the wolves howling outside would change my mind. Hearing such a sound might make me want to be anything better than those wolves. Anything that would make them afraid of me, or keep them from eating me. Surely, they would stay away if I was chosen by God to rule above them.

Some imagine that we are destroying the planet with global warming, pollution, habitat degradation and all that garbage. Do we really think we are that powerful? It seems to me that we’re just committing some form of mass suicide with a little mass murder of our fellow beings thrown in for good measure. But as for the earth, it will do quite well without us, just as it did before we showed up.

Guilt is another common path to power. Some force guilt onto others. Others condemn themselves. This self-imposed guilt is a less obvious bid for power. I’m not talking here about people who physically, or purposely harm other people, and therefore have just claim to self guilt. I’m talking about guilt that we impose upon ourselves when we succeed at something when someone we love does not succeed. I’m talking about the guilt of not being able to save someone from their own self-destruction. I’m talking about the guilt that comes from the hidden feeling that we are powerful enough to control someone else’s life.

Power seems such an ugly thing. Certainly the ways we seek power are often ugly. Yet, there is so much in life that is uncontrollable that we need to at least delude ourselves into believing that we can control the uncontrollable. If we lived day-to-day with the stark knowledge of how little of life is within our control we would crawl back to our dark caves and sit huddled in a crevice shivering in fear.

© 2008 Sally A. Dunn.