Brian Zheng, Period 7, 10/31/23

 Brian Zheng

Modern Mythology 2024

October 31, 2023

Socio-political Consciousness - Why power is so fundamental in our modern world

Power, a powerful and complicated term used to describe “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events,” (Oxford Dictionary). Power can stem from a multitude of sources, though, the 5 most important sources are physical force, wealth, societal norms, ideas, and numbers. Power, well-sought out for many reasons, has a bloody history, full of corruption, wars, and tragedy,  and for this reason power has been depicted as something dirty or evil. Yet power is not inherently bad nor good, rather, it is something fundamental to society, determining the roles of individuals. 

Common themes among literature involving power include abuse of power, power leads to corruption, power leads to overcontrol, etc. For example, in Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth's search for power led to the tragedy at the end of the play. Furthermore, the central government, in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, created a dystopian society where they controlled the minds of the people in hopes of maintaining power. These depictions of power in these popular pieces of literature influence the beliefs of many which is part of the reason for the large distrust among the influenced and the influencers. Instead of viewing these concepts as absolute, we should view them as warnings of what can happen on the extremes.

I have commonly heard complaints about the political system, the economic system, and other systems of the US which dictate the lives of those who live under the US. Personally, I am also guilty of blaming those in positions of power for not creating a better system. Racism, sexism, global warming, etc are still prevalent problems among modern society of the US. However, creating a barrier of distrust between the powerful and the population would only further strengthen the magnitude of these issues rather than fixing it. Instead of only criticizing the people in power, people should strive to be part of the change they wish to see because everybody has some sort of power and when more people try to use their power collectively, it adds up immensely. Instead of viewing power as some evil entity, we should view it like fire, a potent tool that can also be dangerous.