Journal Mr.Intel's Journal: Power 4
Power is the capacity to influence another person's thoughts or actions directly or indirectly. Every personal relationship we have involves power. As children, our parents have great power over us. As adults, we have power relationships with our peers, spouses, superiors, co-workers and family. Power is both respected and hated because of its ability to corrupt and control.
According to Raymond Aron, there are three main types of power that can be used between people. Macht is conventional power or force. Pouvoir is the action of using power or the power of the office. Puissance is the threat of using power or inner power. You will find some combination of these three power types in all great leaders. However, those who have chosen to abuse their power tend to focus on Macht and Pouvoir to attain their goals. Whereas those rare persons that can wield greatness with humility focus on puissance to inspire their people to do good.
If a man or woman were to be given absolute control over another person's life without consequence, you would usually see a sadistic tendancy to abuse that control. There is the story of the experimenter who used two people in two booths. In one booth a person is wired to an electric device and asked questions. In the other, a person has a button which applies electricity and a dial which controls the amount. The scientist tells the person with the button to apply an increasing amount of electricity with each wrong answer given. The person believes that the one being asked the question is the one being studied. Interestingly, the person controlling the electric shocks was found to apply lethal voltages to the questionee even though the experiment was limited to around 9 volts. It was the control over a person that became intoxicating and caused a complete disregard for life or pain.
History is replete with examples of this behavior, from Stalin and Hitler to Hussein and Kim Jong-il. As Macchiaveli put it, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely". This penchant for domination has its roots in the base instincts of humankind: survival. In order to survive, many would choose and have choosen to abandon all reason, morality and virtue. Abuse of power is but one of these methods that unscrupulous men have used to survive. Although it could be argued that individual survival is different that state survival, some leaders see them as inseperable. This is why Hitler committed suicide when the Third Reich was crushed and why Sadaam refused to leave Iraq even though he knew victory was never within his grasp. The intoxication of power and control had absolutely corrupted them.
In our every day relationships, these type of power are also manifested. People tend to have great respect for people who seem to have "inner strength" or the ability to cope with difficult circumstances. This inner strength is puissance and is the key to all the great men that ever lived. George Washington had it because he was able to step away from the presidency in America after 8 years. Lincoln had it as he held together a nation divided against itself. FDR had it when he carried America through a great depression and a world war. Ronald Regan had it because he was able to stare down the USSR and win the cold war. Not to leave the women out: Joan of Arc, Abigail Adams and Elenore Roosevelt all possessed this character quality. It is inner strength, not force or a simple title that inspires men to give up their life for a cause or leader. We desire to be like these men and women because they are inspiring and engender trust and respect. Although these things are intangible, they have great influence over our thoughts and actions.
So the question is: how do we gain puissance? Every person has different capacities for greatness, but we all have the ability to show extraordinary strength. Only through living a virtuous life can we create within ourselves that inner strength. Like exercising a muscle, inner power only becomes potent through its exercise. Making virtuous decisions is the key to exercising inner power because to do so frequently goes against the accepted norms of society. Undeviating virtue is not a common personality trait and therefore is not expected. To show such would be a true display of confidence and power.
Power and Authority (Score:2)
Macht seems tied of physical authority--police officers, army generals, etc. In a like vein, Pouvoir is tied to political authority--authority given formally to people by their social group.
So, where does Pussiance come from? Social authority. The informal relationships, recognition, and judgement of other members of a social group. By this definition, Hitler used Pussiance to gain Pouvoir and then Macht, and he never attempted to regain Pussiance with his new peer groups of world
Re:Power and Authority (Score:2)
That is one way to put it. Force=police/army and Office=political authority. Yeah I think that works.
So, where does Pussiance come from? Social authority.
I don't think that we can make that stretch. Aron states, "One has the puissance to do something and the pouvoir to do it". Therefore you have potential power an
Re:Power and Authority (Score:1)
In that case, puissance isn't power, it's simply will. (Not to dismiss the important of will--zealotry, compassion, revenge, etc. are just as important to those with power as the power itself.)
Re:Power and Authority (Score:2)
If you accept my original definition of power (the ability to influence) then it is power. For if I can influence you to make a certain choice without words or actions, then power is being used all the same.