Power is Cancelled
Why we need to let go of power to save the world
For the last several millennia, power has been humankind’s dominant narrative.
Meaning that: domination by one human or a group of humans over other humans has been seen as the primary force that shapes history.
Cavemen invented clubs to whack their next meal over the head.
Emperors built armies to conquer far-away lands and acquire foreign resources.
Religious officials acted as emissaries from God and dictated global moral judgements.
Explorers and railroad tycoons converted wilderness to arable farmland, to be plowed by foreign criminals and derelicts, unwanted by their home country.
History as we know it is mostly conquering and subjugation. The winners head up the chapters (empires, kings, popes), and the losers wallow in the footnotes (slaves, women, nature).
The winners, or those who were remembered and written about, are powerful men, mostly of European descent.
These men acquired vast lands, enslaved millions, and inflicted “civilization” on “uncivilized” places. These men acquired natural resources, wealth, people, and fame.
They acquired power.
The winners have been our heroes. We look to these heroes for examples of greatness, of how men should behave - with gallantry and bravery, and total lack of conscience.
We look to them so that we may someday have what they have — the wealth, prestige, and service of other humans.
Most of us will never achieve the kind of power we read about in history books.
Instead, we serve.
It would serve us all, instead, to more deeply examine the price of power.
For there is always a price.
The price of power is the suffering of the other.
Power means to be in control of.
In order to hold power, one must be in control of something. That something could be one other person, it could be many people. It could be land, animals, resources, money.
To have full power over something is to own it, as property.
For much of human history, the powerful have sought to own, or fully control, as much as possible.
For the more you own, the more control you have over others.
The safer you are from others having power over you.
The idea goes: as long as you hold property, you don’t have to be afraid. Because you can leverage that property against other power-seekers.
The thing is, the powerful never stop being afraid. They never have enough power. And they never stop taking.
There are always others ready to kill and steal.
There is not enough property in the world to keep the power-hungry out.
So the powerful keep on seeking more and more, and the subjugated in turn . seek to subjugate.
“He has power, so why shouldn’t I have it?”
Power looks awful good from the bottom.
Power protects your family from harm, keeps your house warm, allows you to give to your church or your neighbors when they’re in need.
But the thing about power is that it’s a disease.
Once you have it, you become sick.
Instead of using it for good like you planned, the power itself starts to take over. The power starts to dictate your thoughts and actions.
You plot to have more, to take more, and you delude yourself that it’s a good thing, that you’ll be a benevolent dictator over your little kingdom.
But you’re fooling yourself. Because with power comes inevitable oppression of the Other.
It’s a vicious cycle, and we’re all affected, all over the world.
Colonization and globalization, the global power structures. Within them, we all must fight for resources to stay alive.
It’s an absolute necessity.
But.
But we could start to think about it all a little differently.
First, to reflect: does what I wrote make sense to you?
Let’s drill down a little bit deeper, to when we were children, sponging up information in history class, wiring our brains to understand the importance of power.
Think back for a minute on world history, global history, whatever you read in school.
Exhibit A: Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, which at one point encompassed 9 million square miles, the largest contiguous land mass in history.
Exhibit B: Napoleon Bonaparte, who crowned himself emperor right after the French Revolution dissolved the monarchy.
Exhibit C: The pope in Rome, invested with the keys to heaven, and holding “full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered”
We do have revolutionary stories of “the people” taking back the power, but how different are those stories, really?
Exhibit D: America’s historical narrative of freedom and happiness for all [property owning white men] depends on us remembering that Americans were subjugated by the British, and fought for their freedom.
So we did, but at the same time we also subjugated others.
American colonizers massacred over 130 million native peoples. Early landowners kidnapped and enslaved peoples from Africa to serve the new lords of America. We invited immigrants and paid them next to nothing to risk their lives building railroads and infrastructure. We used and abused our women as servants, chattel, property. We tore up the wilderness and built roads and cities.
For a long time, open, sanctioned subjugation was justified in the name of progress.
We must make sacrifices for progress.
But progress has been debunked as a metanarrative, a great big story that is oversimplified, harmful, and only applies to certain people (the winners).
Progress is a manipulative fiction developed by those in power to hold others down.
Progress is an idea that holds us together in agreement that power is necessary and important.
Even if “things have gotten better over time”, progress is no longer a helpful narrative.
What we need is a new narrative. A paradigm shift away from power.
Until we find this new narrative, people, mostly men, will continue to seek ultimate power, wealth, property, and prestige.
Because our current heroes, as ridiculous as they may seem, hold power.
They subjugate.
They control.
They act from fear.
Our current heroes are full of fear: that the masses will overthrow them, or that artificial intelligence will take over.
So we need new heroes.
Why?
Because power is cancelled.
Who are the new heroes?
We’re already seeing them emerge.
The new heroes are womxn, people of color, indigenous elders, non-binary folks, young people.
What do these heroes have in common?
They are working for the common good.
Our new heroes are not concerned with their personal welfare, or with power at all.
Our new heroes want all humans, all beings, each and every one of us to feel safe, supported, and alive.
These new leaders emerge from necessity.
They know: if they don’t speak, nothing will change.
They know this. And so they fight and risk everything, rather than be subjugated.
They speak, rather than to live a silent life, bowing to rules that will never benefit them.
These leaders see the earth, they see the animals, they see those who do not yet have voices to defend themselves.
They express anger and outrage for the rainforest.
They unite the world against gun violence.
They do not accept the old narratives of power and greed.
They demand change.
It’s a wonderful time to be alive, for the world now has a truly obvious choice to make.
First choice:
We can keep going as we have been for millennia, destroying everything, subjugating other people, and end up in the Matrix.
If we’re lucky, our heroes Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will lead us to Mars, where we can eat Soylent and clone ourselves to survive.
Or, second choice:
We can turn towards the light, towards our inner joy.
We gently and slowly learn to think, speak, and act from a place of love instead of fear.
We can start to open our hearts, feel the visceral pain of others’ oppression, learn empathy, and return to the bosom of the earth.
We can plant gardens, pray, dance, hold hands, and do all the hippie stuff that seems weird at first but feels so good.
We can go to men’s groups and learn to cry.
We can bring mental health awareness to our workplace.
We work together to dismantle the old systems and structures and build new ones.
We take what we have, keep what works, and discard what feels full of selfishness and hatred.
We sacrifice convenience for authentic connection.
We stop mistaking numbness for happiness.
We embrace pleasure and joy.
We relinquish control and accept that life is a mystery.
We nourish our bodies and spirits.
We feed our pre-frontal cortex and right brain.
We make decisions from our hearts.
This is what the earth wants us to do.
She is showing us.
Through storms and rising seas.
She is showing us that we are wounding her, and if we don’t stop, she will be sure to discipline us.
She really doesn’t want to punish us — we’re her children.
She only wants us to see again, to feel again, to hear again.
She wants to bring us back into connection with her. Back in connection with ourselves.
We are so distant, we have forgotten that nature is a part of us.
We’ve been using her and subjugating her for so long, we can’t remember that we once gave back, and prayed to her. There was once an exchange.
The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein, that sweet tearjerker you read as a child?
That’s our global narrative.
What if we could rewrite the ending, or make a sequel?
What would happen if the boy shed tears on the ground for the tree he destroyed, and all the other trees that men have destroyed? The forests and vast landscapes and cultures that men have destroyed?
What would happen if the boy planted new trees all around the one he cut down?
What would happen if that boy became Johnny Appleseed, and planted forests all over the world?
A healing would occur, and can still occur.
We can return to our source, the earth.
We are not exiled.
Reconnecting with the earth requires that we shed the narrative of power.
Can we do this, as a society?
More importantly, can you do this?
Can you take personal responsibility, and return to joy?
Can you give up your dependence on material things?
Can you look more deeply at your addictions to alcohol, food, sex, productivity, technology, loneliness?
Can you shift your focus from fear and anxiety, towards trust? Trust that you belong on this earth, that you were meant to be here?
Can you open your heart?
Can you reach out to your neighbors, connect with your friends, and find time to gather and share?
Can you be vulnerable?
Can you seek the scary deep within you, diving down to find the memory of what you are made of?
Earth.
We are all made of earth.
You’ve heard it before: when we destroy the earth, we destroy ourselves.
We are destroying ourselves.
Let’s stop.
This is a call to action.
The call to action is not feeling guilt.
The call to action is not feeling ashamed of the destruction.
The call to action is whatever you feel you need to do next.
The call to action is within you.
Only you know what it is.
Hint: it starts with vulnerability.
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