Emmanuel Konde
When I write of power I mean real power and not the semblance of power, or the pretensions to power often exhibited by some powerless people. I mean the kind of power that the powerful can employ at will to compel others to do what they would otherwise not do, or use to elevate or destroy life and property and render many a happy man or woman miserable.
That’s why I decided instead to examine the human will the power. Why human beings seek power, for what purpose, and what compels some to exercise abusive power over their kind.
It has been said and written—and I, too, have observed— that unless there exists a vacuum, power is never presented to any person or group but taken or won by those with a compelling will to power. Furthermore, history has shown that every epoch has its preferred method of transferring power. In earlier epochs power was transferred by adhering to the fiction of “divine right” still espoused by some primitive cultures; in others bloody revolutions were commonplace; and in some periods gradual reforms dominated. More often than not, however, those who seek power determine the method of transferring power to themselves. In this affair of power and the human will to power, the means always justifies the ends.
Those extraordinary human beings who have risen to power have either been the clever and most fit at manipulating opportunities, or the most stupid and inept who were simply thrust into power by circumstances. In either case the exercise of power for good or ill is not predetermined by the talents that the powerful bring to power but largely influenced by the talents that they develop while in power. In other words, the taste of power determines how it is exercised.
It is not surprising, therefore, that unless mandated by a dynamic constitution, rarely do those who exercise power dislodge themselves of power on their own volition. This reality, perhaps, explains why power is often taken, either constitutionally through elections in mature democracies, or extra-constitutionally through coups d’état in societies where the human will to power serves as the constitution.
Whether used well or abused, power is a viable instrument that makes many other things possible. This includes making those who exercise power feel good about themselves. And so it necessarily follows that if those who exercise power feel good about themselves, then, the powerless aspirants to power, those who dream of acquiring power someday, are also naturally inclined to want to feel just as good as their powerful counterparts. Thus, how to seize power from the powerful has always been the source of two opposing sensations to the ambitious-powerless: trepidation and exhilaration. While trepidation comes from uncertainty of what might happen if failure should result, exhilaration is an accompaniment of positive thinking—the thought of success.
There are several approaches to power but all can be reduced to two simple formulas: revolution and reform. Revolution, on the one hand, is the quickest means to power and it involves uncertainty on the part of the powerless who risk sudden death or banishment from one’s beloved country should the putsch fail. Reform, on the other hand, though slow and invariably frustrating, is the safest way to power. The first approach, revolution, is usually preferred by the daring risk-takers; the second approach of reform is preferable to the circumspect and cowardly. The success of both is hinged on timing.
Whether it is the former or latter method that aspirants to power should adopt is a question too complicated for this humble mind but one that all those who seek power must answer. They must determine their course of action by taking stock of what they consider to be of paramount importance to them. Whether to sacrifice many innocent people and possibly themselves for immediate gain, or work out a socially satisfactory system that would preserve life but prolong suffering. The trip to power is fraught with dangers. Ultimately, it is not the consideration of what is important to the power-aspirant and society that drives the human will to power. It is the will to power that derives those who aspire to power.
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