Power

Power and accountability over its exercise seems to be cropping up in the news of late:

• in my nation (Australia): 
• a former Prime Minister may be investigated for his role in a notorious scandal,   
• further revelations have been made (in a The Guardian exclusive) about a consulting company at the centre of recent concerns,    
• neoliberal claims have been rejected as “disingenuous” by business (their often allies),    a former neoliberal MP has been fined for breaching electoral laws,   -  and  more false claims about the Voice, referendum and related matters have been made by the no campaign: see here,
  
• an Aboriginal man has died in custody when a recommendation to move him to a mental health facility was ignored (deaths in custody of First Peoples has a long and sordid history, with many past recommendations either not being implemented, or not properly implemented - quite a few of the links I posted here apply to this and other aspects of this post), 
• “Indigenous leader calls for bureaucrat-free Cultural Heritage panel”, 
• a failure to use power properly by allowing aspects of accountability to be implied - and thus capable of being dismissed, ignored, or trivialised .. and not complied with, 
• a crime victims advocate wrongly thinks corporal punishment is of use - which it is not, 
• Australia has reverted to using terminology in line with international usage regarding Israel in Palestine;
  
• “Israel to deny Palestinian-Israelis preparation for University, in exact parallel to Apartheid [in] South Africa”; 
  
• warnings have been made about a “culture of impunity” in Lebanon;
• Russia’s informal military may be trying to take advantage of “instability” (i.e., the recent coup) in Niger;
• a genocide against women in Afghanistan; 
  
• in an example of the misuse of power, “how US news coverage of wars in Yemen and Ukraine reveals a [white supremacist] bias in recording civilian harm”;
  

War and human rights abuses are also exercises in the misuse/abuse of power, which I cover in today’s corresponding post on my main (spirituality-based) blog, but that post also contains examples of attempts to deal with same, including: 

• attempts to end the war in Sudan by negotiation - which is an attempt at good use of power to counter bad;
  

The climate crisis also contains examples of failures relating to power - for instance, here and here. 

I fairly routinely read comments along the lines of great power coming with great responsibility. I agree with that sentiment, but I consider it needs to be taken further: 

What are the character/personality flaws that allow people to misuse, abuse or fail to use/fail to use properly power?
These issues are rarely associated with ineptness/incompetence: the problem is personal - so what caused them to be that way (poor parenting? Bad peer influences - and authoritarian figures/organisations are often VERY bad influences), something else?
Whilst that needs to be known so we can hopefully prevent future such problems, in the interim such abuses need to be actively neutralised, countered, and reversed - and abusers held to account. So ... why do those with power fail to use their power against others who are abusing/misusing/failing to use power? Why are they so afraid of the wrongdoers being held to account? And why do so many on their own personal quest for power seem to think all that is OK?

Food for thought - and for examination of one's own life and personality ... after all, if we have a social “soup” (culture) of being ethical at all levels of society and in all situations (especially human rights abuses [see this commentary on a current film] - and systemic racism and white supremacism require active anti-racism), it makes it harder for those further up the hierarchy to get away with such wrongdoing.

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Finally, remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing.