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RE: The Answer to 22 Veteran Suicides Per Day
Power corrupts
I disagree with you on that. Power literally is required to do everything - it is only the capacity to act and without it you cannot do anything at all.
The problem has been heartlessness and thus unconsciousness and the inability to use power in a balanced way.
I just wrote a post on this specific subject: Why POWER Does NOT Corrupt And Why Those Who Enslave Us Would Like You To Think It Does!
coercive power corrupts?
To be precise, i feel that power itself is not coercive, but the use of power to create coercion is a form of corruption of power and causes further corruption. The corruption is seeded earlier in the process than the coercion itself, in that the coercion is created from thoughts within the actor and those thoughts are lacking in the needed heart balance for the power to be used in a balanced and non coercive way.
A simple, catchy, way to say this is probably 'Power Over Is Corruption'.
Hmmmmm....wow
I just followed you bro
Greetings! Thanks :)
I read your article, and am responding here instead:
Power is not the "ability to act". Everyone has the ability to act regardless of how much power they have, and if you look at the universe as lacking free will, every object in the universe has the "ability to act". Critical to power is the effectiveness of your acting. Does it actually cause matter in the universe to behave favorably to you? If so you have power. The more you are capable of making other matter in the universe do what you want, the more power you have.
Power is not the capacity for actions, it is the capacity to use actions to make other things do what you want. "The capacity for actions" is such a useless concept it does not even deserve to be the definition of a word...perhaps consciousness fits, but even still it is not a good definition for consciousness.
Virtually all humans make decisions based on their fears and desires. When humans make decisions, they use their ability to control their body, the environment, and influence others around them to accomplish these goals. Fears and desires are the cause of corruption, and virtually everyone has these motives. When these motives are given increased opportunity/incentive with reduced consequences, together they tip the scales overpowering unchanging altruism and compassion with increasing desires and fears. In addition to power corrupting actions, it also corrupts the mind as it is actually addictive and comes with withdrawals. The fear of losing power is a fear created by power that increases the incentive for corruption.
An analogy here is the claim that alcohol makes people promiscuous. The desire to be sexual already existed, but this desire is given the appearance of reduced consequences and barriers along with seeming more desirable... So people have sex more often and the populace becomes cautious of alcohol.. But, then you come along and are like "Alcohol does not make people promiscuous! ... The wrong people are just drinking alcohol.... If these people learn how to use alcohol wisely, it would fix the increase in promiscuity" ....Lol, no it would not, it would just combat the effects of alcohol, which you are trying to deny. So same thing here: power does corrupt, and even if you train people to stay strong in the face of this temptation, the temptation still exists and is getting increased by the presence of power.