Cross Posting: power

This originally appeared on my main blog at https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2019/10/post-no-1425-power.html. This is an edited extract.

I've just finished reading an entertaining novel . . . [one] thing that struck me about the book - and this is what has led to this post - is the ways that . . . power . . . can be abused, misused, or not used.

In the novel, there are a number of characters who are, shall we say, "less than perfectly evolved" - not evil, just at the more unpleasant range of normal human behaviour amongst teenagers. The main character makes a few mistakes in the way she handles her . . . power . . .

The risk that the character illustrates is one that is often focused on in the mundane world (which is term I will use in this post for the physical level of reality): use of power for personal gain and/or convenience. In the physical world, this covers things such as:

• financial gain that others have no chance of accessing or competing for, and is at the expense of the common good; 
• corruption, including nepotism;  
• abuse of power for personal gratification - one form of which the "Me Too" moment has made abundantly clear in recent years, but Imelda Marcos' shoes are another notorious example, as is the "resource curse" which afflicted, amongst other places, Uganda under Idi Amin, Zimbabwe under Mugabe, and the DR Congo; 
• use of power to maintain power (this gets into the "dirty tricks" of politics - on that, I'm currently re-reading "All the President's Men"); and 
• use of power for revenge - a variation of the preceding point, where the underhandedness is about gratifying personal dislike, which is also where conscious and unconscious  bias comes in to play as well.

I want to emphasise some of the character flaws that underlay the above points:

• In the spiritual field, . . . , excessive focus on the material world above the nonphysical. Now, that does not mean one neglects or ignores the physical - anyone who thinks that should find out what poverty and starvation are like, which will show why those states of being should be eliminated from the world (apart from dragging down those in those states of learning, they are not good ways to learn for the overwhelming majority of people, and the nonBPM energy generated also adversely affects others). In addition, it is worth contemplating Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which says fundamental needs (such as food, water and shelter) must be met before emotional and other needs can be met (incidentally, I plan on writing about a "Hierarchy of Needs" for nations).
  In terms of the use of power, anyone suffering from this imbalance would think, for instance, that using magick to have a large, flashy home is OK, whereas it is not, because:
  (a) it is an inherent misuse of . . . power . . . ;
  (b) it consumes resources and generates more GHGs; and
  (c) it often involves robbing others of what is fair and reasonable for them. 
• Selfishness. 
• Bigotry, which I dress up nicely above by referring to as "conscious and unconscious bias", introduces a number of problems:
  (i) it makes the application or use of power what is officially termed "arbitrary" - which everyday people are likely to refer to as "unfair";
  (ii) it blinds those using the power to the strengths and weaknesses of those to receive the benefits of the application of power, or who can contribute to the use of power.
  That is, some groups of people may be excluded from benefits - such as people from other races, sexualities, gender identities, sexes, cultures, language groups, etc, and people with the ability to make a useful contribution are also shut out of the opportunity to do so.
  This is well covered by the continually developing area of human rights. From a spiritual point of view, this flaw is likely to lead into actions which are harmful all round - including, through the action of karma, the perpetrator;
  (iii) Thought flaws such as the "white picket fence" mentality, mistakes in the conception of what is beneficial and not in terms of goals to aim for in the use of power. Neoliberalism is another example of this flaw in the mundane world; spiritually, the most common mistake I have come across is people thinking the solution to problems is for people to overcome them, which neglects the fact that we are also meant to be contributing to making the world a better place - the view that we are too small or that "it takes too long" is a whole set of (unspiritual) flaws, including cynicism. 
• Not understanding other people - massive topic; for now, maybe see here.
• Addiction to power can occur through a complex mélange of factors, including, "but not limited to", the desire to do what one considers good (an underrated and often ignored factor - which is dangerous, as it is often the foot in the door for other faults), the understandable and very human desire for a bit of comfort and ease - and, after more than half a century of fighting for a better world, this is the one I am most prone to, exhaustion / being overwhelmed, etc, as well as the more commonly considered enjoyment of having and exercising power. 
• Other addictions - . . . which are a form of control of another person, and thus are, in addition to being harmful to the person trying to exercise such power (not only through karma, but also through deferring addressing issues such as the fear of being alone), evil. 
• Fear (see also here) - in this instance, fear of whether the outcome from the exercise of power will turn out the way one wishes (fear of others / difference is covered above, under "bigotry"). This may be something that those who have tried to change the world for a while and know the difficulty of doing so have a better handle on than those who have less experience (none of which relates to chronological age: it depends when one starts to realise that psychic power exists; this also gets into what one brings in to this incarnation from previous lives), as they are more likely to understand that, in the long term, forcing people to be a particular way does not work as well as taking people with you on a journey to comprehending and appreciating the benefits of a change. The backlash that occurs in the mundane world from time to time (throughout history - POTUS45 is just the latest manifestation of this, albeit one of the worst for a  long time) shows what can happen when people are not taken along the journey.
  The counter to the latter point, is that not making a change condemns those suffering from the status quo to continuing to suffer - and this is what often drives many community activists.

There are two other points I mentioned:

• the misuse of power; and 
• failure to use power.

Misuse of power is typically thought of, in my experience, by what I have covered so far. However, in the context I have in mind, what I am referring to here could also be referred to as incompetent use of power - things like making mistakes.

. . .

So, what sort of things could lead to this?

• Inadequate understanding of what needs to change - for instance, addressing a symptom, rather than a cause. In the mundane world, as an example, that might include lashing out at a police officer for wrong conduct, rather than changing the training that produced the incompetence or allowed a wrong attitude to exist in the officer's mind. Spiritually, it would include focusing on POTUS45 and ignoring the problems that drove those who voted POTUS45 in to power. 
• Inadequate patience and persistence. I want to change the world, and, as I've written elsewhere, that takes a long time, and I won't get what I want done completed in this lifetime. That doesn't mean I give up in despair, which simply means it will take even longer, and requires someone else to do what I should be doing, it means I exercise patience and persistence - as expressed in one of my personal affirmations, which is:
     Consistently, consistently, steadily, steadily,
     like a relentless river of ice
     I progress daily
     towards my goals, needs and aspirations.
  It also means I take the time to practice and master my psychic skills, including knowing what they can and can't do. 
• Arrogance - not connecting to others, which requires one to possibly be prepared to give up a part of what one is wanting to do in order that a team can develop and work towards a collectively chosen goal using collectively agreed methods.
  That is a compromise, but it may be necessary in order to achieve what one wishes. In a magickal sense, that may mean being part of a coven or other group; in the mundane world, it may mean doing something like joining a political party (or an activist group).

Paul K Chappell  writes  (e.g., "The Art of Waging Peace” (pub. Prospecta Press, reprint 2015, ISBN 978-1632260314 [Amazon], see also here) about learning from the military so one can "wage peace" more effectively. I've also found, recently, that Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" actually does have some useful information that can aid my psychic work - I've avoided it for decades out of my pacifist principles, and that was a mistake. (It took reading some of Mr Chappell's books to realise my error.) . . . 

That is also a useful point to start considering the final flaw: not using [power].

My experience is that most people don't act because they think they can't possibly make a difference, or a significant difference (limited self confidence is only a part of this issue: there are personally confident people who don't act because they have the view it will not be effective). The notion that one person can't make a difference is wrong for a number of reasons, which I've also written about elsewhere. It is also worth considering that this is where the benefits of working with others comes into play.

There are other reasons people may not choose to act when they can, and the one I want to mention here is: fear.

In the mundane world, "doing something" can lead to retaliation from those who are more powerful (I've experienced, last century [millennium!] such petty vindictiveness in the workplace). It is real matter to consider, but it should be considered properly - objectively, taking into consideration things like "can I protect myself?" This is something well illustrated, in the mundane world, by the current protests in Hong Kong.

. . .

Finally, j. . . power . . . is real, and it exists in a wide range of forms and arenas. At some stage, just as one has had to learn a whole host of other skills in life, one has to start learning how to work with or at least co-exist with honour and integrity (mægan) with it. Work at your pace, in manageable sized lessons, and with patience and persistence, and you will get there.