What are we? Why are we here, on this planet? What are our goals and how to achieve them? All of these questions worry our minds through the whole our existence. We try to find the reason for us to live and sometimes do not notice the obvious things. In my opinion, the answers to these questions are lying in the understanding of our nature which is usually similar to the animals` one.
Bertrand Russell wrote "the fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics." So is there any opportunity to define the social power and use it as we have done with physics?
Curiosity is the engine of progress. That is the way, many people think. Most of us are sure, that the most important thing for us is to develop and find something new. However, these are just the consequences, but why do we keep developing? What are our true goals? Are they money or, maybe, the wish to become popular? I think, that the main reason for most of the people`s achievements is the lust for power. It is power the thing which makes us discover new things, invent new technologies and ways to influence other people.
The historical experience shows that the submission of the people`s activities to achieve certain goal appears when the need of cooperation between people appears. And at the same time determine the master and slave, rulers and ruled, domination and subordinates. By its nature, power is the social phenomenon. It is difficult to imagine the society without it.
As Jim Grove states social power is nowhere but in the hands of individual persons. Institutions do not exert power; only the people in the institutions do so. It is an opportunity for us to impose other people`s will, influence their activity and behavior even in spite of their resistance. It gives everything any person could ever dream about. It allows controlling other people, making them do anything you want. It is an ability to live without any stresses, to have everything, including the people`s respect and worship. An easy way to embody the most low-lying people`s desires. Is not that a dream?
In my opinion, power can be local and can be global. The representative of the global power is every politician, of course. They are those, chosen by other people to control them. Of course, the official version is that they present the will of the nation, but the truth is that they are stronger than us; they control our will and decide our fate. As Karyn Krawfard says in her Social Analysis, the society governments, organizations and an elite class of people make decisions that affect the lives of a large mass of other people. A significant amount of research shows these decisions are often made to serve their own economic interests. Of course, every rule has its exclusions, but they do not influence the situation in common.
However the true source of all human`s problems are the fights for the local power. The best representatives of them are the competitions between usual people, who try to enter the school or university or conquer while applying for a job or even fighting to become a boss. We meet these competitions every day; all of them are the parts of the system we are captured in. Thanks to them every human is involved in the some kind of game, so-called rat races. All these small local battles reveal our worst traits and test our stamina and desire to success.
Many people say that such desire for power and battle is the only way for the society to survive. Leading to this opinion, people need to be limited in their fight for worldwide respect that is why such local battles have been created. Otherwise, we would simply destroy the world in our heading to the leadership. That is a way to excess energy, to keep us in the system, under full control out of fight for global power.
Another version is that we have created this system on our own. It tells that it is much more comfortable for us not to get into politics, stay away from making really important decisions. We are afraid to take the responsibility and try to satisfy our desire for power with these small local battles and successes in them.
It is hard to say, what version is true, but what is it possible to do to get into the fight for the global force? What are the ways to become the best? In my opinion, there are a lot of them. You can become the strongest or the cleverest. You can use your trick or the influence of your relatives. You can even train your charisma and use it to gain all of your goals.
However, one of the most reliable ways in modern society can be religion. It happens that way, because when everything goes wrong in people`s life, they remember about God, in hope to find a person who will correct everything. Imagine yourself an apocalyptic world with no system and you, holding the last Bible. You can rewrite it as you want and use it as you want. You can become the Messiah and unite all the people with the help of religion.
The same situation is happening with the modern society. The nature is destroyed by people. The situation in the politics is becoming more intense. We are extremely close to another World War with the use of nuclear weapon. The situation is close to critical. We do not have people to trust and there is nobody who can unite and lead all the nations to the wealth and prosperity. And the role of such person is a great way to the power.
Nowadays, we can see the distribution of spheres of influence in the world. The world becomes divided by several most powerful people. They understand that their equality does not let them to become the sole ruler of all people, to become the only leader. That is why they fight, trying to surpass each other, destroying everything around them. Such battle can become the reason for the total destruction of our society and people`s extinction.
However, despite everything described before, I must say, that not all of the people are the same. Some of us do not have to be the strongest and the cleverest to have power. The truly force has the one, who uses everything he has to help others. These are those people, who could get the world`s respect in minutes, but do not need the worldwide recognition and love. Such people have the true power, hidden deeply inside of them. As Joel Wade states you don't have to be in a position of great power to have a positive impact on our culture.
In my opinion, power is the true engine of progress. Even in the modern civilized society, people still want to rule the world. That is our main instinct to be the best, to be the most powerful and uppermost. It is in us from our birth, this is an instinct, which we cannot control. As Ralf Dahrendorf states the fundamental inequality of social structure and the lasting determinant of social conflict, is the inequality of power and authority which inevitably accompanies social organizations. Power is the goal we are heading to through the whole our life. It makes us study and work as hard as possible and fight for it.
In conclusion, I would like to say, that there are not too many variants for our existence on this planet. We can either destroy each other’s in our headings to power or reach the wellness which the humanity has not seen before. These are us to decide where to direct our energy and our power. As Vincent J. Roscigno states, collective action is another important counterweight to standing power. And nowadays, the modern society faces the choice to tale the situation in its hands and finish up with the destruction of our world by the carriers of power or keep watching it and see the Earth destroyed by people in their indulgence to their basest desires.
Reference list
Krawford, Kerin. “Marx & Conflict Theory - Analysis of Power in Society”: n.pag. Web.
Dahrendorf, Ralf. Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959.
Bertrand, Russel. “Power: A New Social Analysis”. London: Allen & Unwin, 1938. Print.
Wade, Joel. “The Social Power Of Integrity”: n.pag. Web. 2014.
Roscigno, Vincent J. “Power, Sociologically Speaking”: n.pag. Web. November, 2012.
Grove, Jim. “Power in Society”: n.pag. Web. February, 2012.
