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RE: Authoritarian Sociopathy: Toward a Renegade Psychological Experiment, Part 3
Children are a stewardship relationship, not a ruler/subject relationship. When parents behave like the latter, that is when abuse rather than nurturing is the result.
See the new post on legitimate versus illegitimate power. I think you will find it illuminating.
I don't really see the point in the semantic differentiation between the two. It remains a fact that parents do have to exercise absolute authority over their children, no matter how you couch it semantically.
It is also a fact that parents are imperfect, and that all of them both fail and succeed at certain aspects of their task. Generally, parents do not abuse their authority by becoming sadistic.
Whatever you call it, the exercise of power over others is reflective of character, and it is not possible to exclude character as a factor determining abuse of power.
I hope to soon see your new post.
Thanks!
It's a massive distinction whether you grasp it or not. Rulership is a claim of ownership. Stewardship is acknowledgement that you are protecting what belongs to someone else.