I was reading up on the problems of abuse of power and authority. I found an interesting article from expertbase. It was mostly about the workplace, but some things apply to other organizations, like Steemit. I will share 2 quotes and add my own thoughts.

"It is increasingly recognised that organisations need good leaders if they are to go forward successfully. Their people will feel motivated, empowered and want to contribute. Leaders who are not using their power positively and abusing will act in a way which will be coercive and, in extremes, could be bullying."

On Steemit, the management of the social-media community is done by the rich "managers" who are the users that have the most SP. Abusing power to create conflicts and negative outcomes for people, is bullying.

In a regular job you might need the money, so you stay working there regardless of the abuses of power affecting others and the organization. On Steemit, no one has to be here, but people choose to be there, and they remain there in support of the abuses of power. Why support of the abuse of power? Because not caring about it or doing something to stop it is to condone and support it by default.

Responsibilities of Power

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton

"There are two elements of power in an organisational context - "position power" and "personal power". The leader has "position power" given from the organisation. This comes from the authority which the job role has to do things or make things happen. The "personal power" is about the degree of influence the individual has and is given by the followers. The two are interlinked to an extent. People will look to the leades "position power" and give them a degree of "personal power" based on how they perceive the leader might influence them."

People who "ninja mined" a bunch of cryptocurrency tokens get "position power" by having so many tokens (STEEM).

Other people may like to gain favor from those with money and power so that it benefits them personally. So they become "yes men" that reinforce the thinking and behavior of the person with a "position power" and giving them "personal power". They don't use critical thinking to filter their actions because loyal sycophants are feeding them a distorted lens of the world that justifies their behavior.

Just by having money one will automatically gain a "position power" in a society. The influence money gives people provides them that automatic power over others. People will do what the "position power" holder likes in order to be on their good side and reap the benefits.

When someone is unable to cope with the responsibilities of power, they become bullies and abuse it.

Signs of a Poor Leader/Manager

Things to look for are in a physical organization:

• shouting, screaming;
• threats being used;
• unreasonable demands;
• intimidating body language;
• being a time-stealer to staff;
• setting unreasonable levels of expectation, etc.

Steemit has some rich rulers swearing at people who expose their abuse of power, and threaten them with more abuse of power (don't challenge my authority or call out my bad behavior, or else I will flag you more!). They can make unreasonable demands (you need X upvotes, views or comments to keep your rewards) and threaten to take your rewards. You're not allowed to keep the rewards you earned like everyone else unless the rich ruler approves it. Steemit has a problem with bad leadership/management.

"It is increasingly recognised that organisations need good leaders if they are to go forward successfully."

When Steemit is being run by one person who decides to do whatever they want without consequences to their behavior, this does not create a direction for the organization to go forward in. A proper direction with competent leaders is required in order for an organization to go forwards successfully.

Fear of Losing Power

"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power." - John Steinbeck

It could be that it's not power that corrupts itself. Some people can use power well. Maybe it's the fear of losing the control of what they want to control (information in posts, the direction of Steemit, being exposed as a bad person, etc.) that the power initially affords them?

"How dare you judge or challenge me, here's a flag to teach you a lesson!"

If you stand up, speak up, and dare to "disobey" some Steemit rulers, they take that as a challenge to their supremacy. You're just an ant under their boot. Take their scraps and their abuse, or else they give you more abuse! It's a party for bullies to abuse power and mistreat others. They love it!

If you don't obey with bullshit, you get mistreated. Wonderful organization/community to be in... lol. Freedom? Huh?

"I have more money, I have a 'do what I want and get away with it' badge of money!"

Inferiority Seeks to Misuse and Abuse Power Over Others

From quora:

"People who feel inferior often seek out positions of power to make themselves feel better. Whereas most people derive self esteem from accomplishments, intelligence or likability, some people lack these characteristics so they need to get in power positions to increase their self-esteem. People who are sadistic need a platform to lord their power over others, so they seek out situations that will give them this power."

Control Information

What if people do things that rich rulers don't personally like? They have power to try to coerce someone to stop doing what they personally don't like (with flags). On Steemit, some people post about more important and relevant things in life that others feel they don't measure up against. They don't like seeing intelligent and uplifting posts that elevate one's consciousness because they lack the interest or ability to comprehend those posts. Instead of benefiting from those posts, those posts make them look dumber, weaker and it lowers their self-esteem. The only way to attack it is with flags since the intelligent use of words is not something they are good with. All they have is brute power as "might makes right".

They feel inferior and don't like the contrast that this information brings to their life. In order to stop someone from putting out information that makes them feel inferior, they will try to use their power so that the content is less popular for others to not see it.

Rich rulers want to control what information gets seen and rewarded for success in the Steemit social-media organization. To allow the information that makes them feel inferior means the posts they want to be successful and rewarded aren't getting as much attention. If more people pay attention to the information they don't like, then they are losing control of the information that they want popularized on the platform. They want to be the ones to decide what posts can gain more views and get rewarded. Losing that control over the platform is not desired. They fear losing that control. They want to keep control over whats gets popular, who gets to see it, and the rewards someone gets for that content.

People in positions of power will fear losing face from being wrong, or from information exposing how they fail to live up to better standards and not mistreat others. Exposing someone's initial abuse of power tends to make them go crazy and abuse even more, especially when few are paying attention and they can get away with it. They fear more information getting out that exposes how they fail to live up to those standards or principles most people can recognize -- if money and the influence of "position power" isn't clouding their judgment.

Fear of Appearing Weak

Asking for help or seeking to improve themselves only confirms how they are not up-to-measure yet, and they think it makes them look weak. Rather than trying to improve, they just lash out in ignorance and fear. They compensate for their fears of losing face, fear of losing power, and fear of appearing weak, by trying to show "strength" in dominating others with the power they have. They have to project a false image and appearance of themselves being "strong" and never wrong. They won't admit wrong because that makes them look weak in their eyes.

Abusive Leaders Don't Help an Organization

If you want to gain respect from people, treat them with respect. Trying to silence people with abusive flag use is not the sign of a competent leader or manager, and certainly not the direction to take to make an organization successful going forward. The plutocratic rich rulers on Steemit who act this way are not helping Steemit. I've been trying to expose this behavior for months, but overall it's a hit and miss for people to get it. People who choose to flag content because they don't like it -- because it doesn't align with what they want posts on Steemit to be about, or with how they want Steemit to be -- are not doing good by Steemit.

If you disagree, then you think Steemit is best represented by rich rulers who flag and remove rewards from people's posts they don't like for some personal reason? I laugh at that conclusion. It's not a plan to create a successful social-media organization or community when the rich rulers get to decide who is allowed to get higher visibility on posts and remove their rewarded support -- even when they make less rewards than top trending posters and posts.

Power vs. justice...

Is Steemit going to stay the place where justice comes after money, where those with the most money can go on doing what they like without any accountability?

As someone on a quora post said:

The corruption of our world is unfathomable unfortunately and the cycle of abuse never ends... I have to either know someone or play political games or buy my way up to get noticed as a writer.

Some people seem to think "vote negation" will solve the issue. But that only works if you "know someone or play political games or buy my way up", as the quora poster said. I don't have those connections. Implement "vote negation" and nothing changes for me getting flagged. So for me it's not a solution as I see it, but maybe it would be for others who have connections and support from whales. I guess I wouldn't deny "vote negation" as a new feature, I just don't see it working out in my case.

I hope the communities/UIA comes in the next hardfork(s), as I don't think any flag improvements will be put in place instead.