I want to comment on the issue of power because a friend of mine recommended a book called The 48 Laws of Power.
I am not going to reference the book because I looked at the summary online. A few of the laws are legitimate comments about power. The rest is pretty much irrelevant crap derived from books on spirituality.
I have spent many decades thinking about the issue of power and never came to any useful conclusions.
There are two fundamentally different categories of power.
There are significant differences in dealing with a static power environment vs dynamic power . With static power I am referring to existing institutions such as an operating corporation or an army or a city council in which one has an appropriate amount of power prescribed within the institution .
The static case is a very different kind of power, and the rules for coping with it, are significantly different from power in the dynamic environment. When creating a new organization or moving an existing organization in a radically new direction one uses a different type of power.
There is nothing about power that is obvious which is the reason I haven't written on the subject . Nothing about power is visible . Nothing about power is communicable by standard means. You can’t learn about it from reading any more than you can become an artist or poet or musician from reading.
In general power is in the individual. When a person with significant power walks into a room most of the people in the room become aware of that person whether that person is significant to the people in the room or not.
I have noticed this about myself many times. When I enter a room I am usually noticed. I have noticed this about other people as well . It accounts for a problem I had in much of my early life . Until I knew what was happening from about age 15 until age 30 I was made president of every organization that I came near. Walking into a club I was often asked to be president. I’m not kidding. This happen to me the first week I arrive at San Francisco State College (to get some units for graduate school) I was asked to be President of the Student Council. It happened dozens of times. That led me to understand that power can be communicated between people. But it is invisible.
Such power can be weak in people in a static organization. Such people can rise in the organization by ‘learning the ropes’.
On the other hand, personal power must be built into the organizer of a dynamic organization. Such people always need strong personal power.
I was directly involved in politics for at least a decade. During that time I ran political campaigns, served in many elective party political bodies and worked in the California state legislature. In these instances power was already written into the code of a particular position in these static organizations. That power can be exercised by using skill.
Since the power in most static institutions is a zero sum game it is necessary to gain power by blocking other people. This is done by having adequate information which gives one leverage over people by knowing their fears and desires. One then blocks other people using information they do not want revealed (ala J. Edgar Hoover) or forming an alliance that is threatening to them. As I say about an incoming president of the United States or any organization, he has the most power early in office because he (she) can make appointments and because people have not figured out how to block him from exercising power. After a short time in office everyone finds that (to use a metaphor) ‘many people have you by the balls and you can’t turn much in any direction without pain’. The great geniuses in exercising this type of power are people who understand the process deeply. It is skill in using good information.
Honesty is an important element in being a good broker in forming coalitions and being an effective user of power.
You won't hear that very often outside of power circles. Power is also based on trust. Your word is good, or you have no power. Bill Clinton never had power in power circles because he never kept his word. His power was always outside power circles among the naive and inexperienced. (continued in the next blog)