Michelle Kordov, Period 7, 3/8/23

 Michelle Kordov

2023

Human beings have always been obsessed with the idea of power and always will be. We are undeniably infatuated with the idea of being better, stronger, superior in every sense. We read books and watch movies about characters more powerful than us; sometimes they possess magical abilities to manipulate the elements, or have super strength, or know how to skillfully handle a sword. We get lost in fantasy realms that involve superior creatures to forget how pathetic we are. And I don’t think that the ‘patheticness’ of humanity is a bad thing per se, I just think that humans are naturally weak, at least compared to the characters we love to observe in the stories that we create. Physically, we are extremely fragile. One clumsy misstep can lead to a broken bone or a bruise. Our skin cuts easily, muscles easily tear, and our insides can betray us without hesitation; disease, disorders, pain, inflammation, the list goes on. And emotionally we are even more fragile. Every single one of us needs social interaction; we can never be truly independent because socializing is literally built into our genetics and has allowed us to survive. No one can truly call themselves “independent” because our psychological stability relies on the connections we have and create with other humans. And personally, I believe that our inherent dependence on relationships renders us less powerful than we would like to admit. Furthermore, I think that there are very few people on this planet that are 100% emotionally stable. Many of us have experienced hardships and/or trauma that has left psychological scars and in turn, even the toughest and strongest souls are emotionally vulnerable. And this vulnerability makes us susceptible to even more weakness and manipulation because we are naturally sensitive to the actions that others impose on us. As a result of all these factors, humans remain captivated by the idea of power in every sphere of our lives. Which is why we turn to books such as The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. A book interestingly considered “self help” by many but in my opinion, is just a list of simple manipulation tactics to create power dynamics to constantly get what you desire. I have had multiple discussions with my peers about this “edgy” and “mysterious” book and have seen young people talking about it online, however, a common theme always emerges. We can make as many satirical references to Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and perceive ourselves to be as “deep” as much as we want, yet there is still an underlying desire to be the kind of person that effectively is able to dominate those around us: someone powerful. Because the truth is that we don’t want to be weak and pathetic. We don’t want to easily submit to oppression or inequality. A lot of the time we see power as success; the power to overcome a depressive episode or put bullies in their place or get through the college application process. So it is fascinating how the power to overcome and prevail differs so starkly from the power to manipulate, oppress, and harm. We need power to fight power. But where does “good power” end and “bad power” begin? Perhaps our fascination lies not in the techniques used to take advantage of the emotionally vulnerable but in the lack of moral pushback against such actions; the ability to be ruthless, cunning, with lack of empathy. Would that be “bad power”? But I digress from these philosophical questions.

In the state of our current world, oppression and inequality actually need to exist. When it comes to capitalism, many supporters claim that it is a superior system since it allows for people to exit poverty and that it gives everyone the ability to climb up the ladder of economic class. But this idea that “no one has to be stuck” appears to completely fall apart when you realize that under capitalism, poverty has to exist. Someone’s pain and suffering has to exist. Capitalism centers on the work value of human beings, the success of the free economic market, and this entails businesses that strive to increase their profit margins as much as humanly possible. To achieve this goal, corporations rely on class divide in order to hire workers that will work for as little as possible; that's just the easiest way to make a profit. So it seems that the grandiose power and economic strength of our capitalist system thrives by not providing workers the full fruits of their labor; there always needs to be someone struggling at every point in time in the lower classes for the system to continue functioning. And then, certain social groups will label those poorer folks as lazy and weak; some may claim that single mothers working multiple jobs to try to make ends meet are just “not working hard enough”, and are not powerful enough to overcome their challenges. But honestly, I don’t know if we currently have another system that can work better and replace these issues. Power struggles/dynamics will always exist and there will always be someone more powerful than me anyway. Or is that something a weak person would say?