Re: Handling Power & Politics LO1885

allen59@ramlink.net
Fri, 30 Jun 1995 09:18:30 -0400

Replying to LO1864 --

Barry Mallis wrote:
>Let me "type aloud" about this one. Is this statement too broad? Is
>there not a person who actually seeks to hold power for the benefit of
>many, because of a recognition that the position of power invests good
>intentions with potential, and then with positive actions which assist the
>many?

>I suppose these words partially coincide with a definition of altruism.
>Altruism need not be confined to the "less" powerful, need it be? Now
>another angle.

There is a real suspicion on my part that anything like true "altruism"
exists. I am of the belief that there are very few if any pure motives at
all. Even when we choose to do good, part of our reasons are selfish-- it
makes us feel better to do good. Bellah points this out in the opening
chapters of Habits of the Heart, when as he examines the motives of people
who made life-changing choices (to be less busy, to be less materialistic)
he discovered the motivation for the dramatic change had to do awith a
perception of preceived self interest. "It makes me feel better to (be
with the kids, have more leisure time, etc.)"

Now, I think there are a lot of people who hold power because they wish to
do good for others. Two points-- (1) my literary allusion was to the
situation of being willing to relinquish power (Orwell's 1984 dungeon
scene); and another literary allusion, this time from Tolkein:

Remember at the beginning of the Ring trilogy, when Gandalf the good
wizard was commissioning Frodo the Hobbit on his quest to destry the One
Ring of Total evil? Frodo offered the immense power of the ring to
Gandalf--"You are wiser than I, more educated in these tings. You take
it." Gandalf reared back, saying that the temptation for him would be too
great. He would try to take that absolute power and turn it to good ends,
but in the end he knew it would turn him to evil ends.

I know from my observations of religious leaders-- leaders who wield the
power of people's good will generated by religious impulse-- that even
that power corrupts. So no, I think I will remain distrustful of power,
thoe who wield an inappropriate amount of it, and those who think they can
control its effects upon them and their organizations.

If I understand you Grand Inquisitor quote (and I'm not sure that I do),
you seem to be saying that ther human Inquisitor has grasped the concept
of temporal power, but is unable to appreciate the depth of spiritual
power and how superior it is to temporal power. I would agree with you,
with a caveat-- since we are a mix, all of us, of good and not-good
impulses, wants, and desires, even those who seek to wield spiritual power
do so subject to the weakness of the "flesh," to use a good religious
word.

All I am really arguing for is a level of self-criticism. In a recent
interview with the developer of PGP security software, he said "Don't
trust a cryptographer who thinks he has created unbreakable code. Every
code is breakable, and a cryptographer who doesn't know that is not a very
good one." In the same vein, a leader by the nature of the job must weild
whatever power there is invested in that role-- hopefully with some
self-critical ability to recognize her/his own potential to abuse that
power, or to mispercieve his/her own motives in any given situation.

--
|-------------------------------------------|
|  Allen Gibson                             |
|  allen59@ramlink.net                       |
|  "Wherever you go, there you are!"        |
|-------------------------------------------| 
|  "That's all I can say, really--          |
|   These things are true, and              |
|   I've seen them for myself."             |
|      Claudia Shear                        |
|-------------------------------------------|