Beneficent Power
A simple exhortation to step into power
When power operates beneficently, it is an interaction that flows from assumed responsibility.
Assumed responsibility is responsibility fully inhabited subjectively, in contrast with assigned responsibility which is an external matter (and may be self-assigned, i.e., chosen). When these two coincide, we may speak of having a sense of duty. Here, though, we are concerned only with responsibility felt as arising organically, whether or not there is any external assignment.
Much confusion about power can be untangled if we consider the distinction between using the affordances of power with assumed responsibility and using them without.
When interaction with the affordances of power emerges from assumed responsibility, we may appreciate that “someone’s got that part handled.” (Assuming responsibility here means taking responsibility as a subjective stance, not in the lip-service way that politicians “assume responsibility” for having tanked their re-election campaign by frequenting prostitutes.) When our interests strongly diverge with others, we may esteem an opponent worthy, in that they are acting on behalf of their authentic cares, which cares happen not to be in accord with ours.
The noble exercise of power includes assuming responsibility for the uncomfortable trade-offs that tend to produce both admirers and enemies; few actions escape political division, even at the scale of a neighborhood.
The flow of beneficent power
Contact with actuality: being present to and participating with what is occurring.
Presence to your fields of care: fully feeling all that you care about, in all its incoherence.
Stepping into a domain of responsibility: this is the motion from “I care” to “I will make my care manifest.”
Interacting with available affordances of power: promoting visions, building coalitions, exerting authority, harnessing resources, acting boldly.
Discovering anew: allowing contact with reality to continually reshape the fields of care and domain of responsibility.
What hinders contact with actuality?
Action is its own vision, revealing how the world responds in ways that may not match our ideas. This entails that our actions toward our cares will inevitably have times and phases that are less skillful and may not yield the result we desire. Accept that the passage through “the valley of cringe” may be inevitable as you learn to exercise power. When care is solely theoretical, then the embarrassment of being seen to be not-fully-competent can be avoided, but the actual way the world responds to our actions is never revealed.
What hinders presence to our fields of care?
A natural part of adult development is to go through a period of taking on the cares of the intimate social group, as often seen in teenagers. This is a necessary move away from self-centeredness. A subsequent adult development challenge is to develop discrimination between “what I care about” and ideas of “what I should care about” absorbed from communities or subcultures. This is the ability to contribute to a community as a distinct voice within it.
Beyond that is the adult development challenge of working with incoherent fields of care and discovering how to proceed. This can be bewildering. A suggestion for a path forward is addressed in The Solution to All Dilemmas.
What hinders stepping into a domain of responsibility?
It costs us less attention, energy, and resources if someone else takes responsibility for what we care about; further, we generally care about more than we can practically take responsibility for. The primary concern of beneficent power is to bring about a future that would not happen otherwise; if we find ourselves with compelling enough cares, we will likely assume responsibility. Absent that, our beneficent activity can manifest by allowing our strong cares underserved by others to bloom into responsibility.
What hinders interacting with available affordances of power?
Using affordances of power is primarily a skill issue. Communication skills, management skills, leadership skills, community building skills…there are endless resources to help people work better with the affordances of power. Of course, the most valuable resource is often a perfectly-fitting mentor, which is not always easy to find.
The hindrance here is the simplest to overcome: diagnose where the greatest opportunities lie in becoming more skillful at using the affordances of power.
What hinders discovering anew?
Our patterns (of thought, of care, of responsibility) generate their own momentum. The momentum of these patterns delaminates from contact with actuality when the world changes faster than our patterns. Public commitments can buttress our display of care, causing it to stabilize unhelpfully. Thus it can be a continual challenge to allow our fields of care to transform as they will, with the downstream impact on our domain of assumed responsibility.
Common reasons for shying away from stepping into power
There are many common reasons why people shy away from stepping into power:
Recoil from power-without-responsibility, rightly finding it odious, but not realizing the possibility of beneficent power.
Aversion to assuming responsibility for uncomfortable trade-offs, as that may entail answering for the harms of those affected. This is an avoidance of the mess of reality, to the detriment of all.
Ideological capture by a metaphysics that frowns on all power, often centered around a framework of “oppressor” and “oppressed.”
Of the same family, ideological capture by a milieu where power reads as gauche.
Loyalty to a self-image of “I am not the kind of person who wields power.”
Conflict-aversion proper: the prospect of enemies can be intolerable to those whose self-image rests on being liked.
Aesthetic distaste for the affordances of power such as coalition-building, fundraising, networking, public speaking.
Stepping into power
Step into power: contact with actuality, presence to your fields of care, assumption of responsibility for what otherwise would not happen. Then: take hold of the affordances of power and let bold action flow, without shying away from the uncomfortable trade-offs that will be made, trade-offs which cannot be outsourced to any rational ethics. There is no guarantee that things will go well; you will discover your cares anew as the world evolves in response to your power. But avoiding stepping into power forgoes the opportunity to benefit all.