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Sunday::Jul 07, 2024

Power and Weakness

I

think that being in power is a serious detriment to being able to think and act clearly. This is because power, basically by definition, means being able to insulate oneself from the consequences of one's actions. But this means that one is actually losing knowledge about the world -- instead of developing a holistic sense of what causes what effects, power (of all kinds) allows one to ignore harmony, balance, and understanding, and seize one's desired outcomes "directly". There are almost always hidden costs to this sort of thing, but power allows us to ignore those as well. It requires a great deal of personal willpower and wisdom to keep one's head, when you know that you could easily make your problems go away.

This is always why abuse of power is so prevalent. If you can use money or power to avoid consequences, it takes a rock-solid moral foundation not to at least try doing something wicked, when you know you could get away with it, and this is a terribly slippery slope. After all, after a few times of experiencing no negative outcomes from evil action, you start to question whether it is actually evil at all.

This makes the story of the Christ all the more profound. The Creator of the universe became the most powerless of men -- born to poverty, walking the earth without possession or titles, and finally subjected to grim torment and execution. One can sense in the very pages the moral confusion of Pontius Pilate, invested with great power, and clueless how to wield it. Meanwhile, the man Jesus accepted all that was cast upon Him, and His words still shake us to this day.

There's a quote from a Father Brown story that I think about a lot. There's a famous yogi of sorts at a festival in Britain, and a woman very impressed by him is extolling his spiritual powers. Father Brown replies that he is far more interested in spiritual weakness than in spiritual power. I find this a tremendous aid and comfort in my own inner life.