This is really not a sound/completed thought, but worth a mention as it came up today...
Many theories of power are generally applied to our social world and the ability of individuals and group/class actors to maintain power over others. I would expand upon this to go beyond ‘social’ form to include any entity as having power. It seems to me that ‘power’ is actually a simple ‘quantification’ of comparative energy use. It is obvious that all things in existence have some sense of power affixed to them, a rock, gravity, a mind, a strong person, a social norm, etc. There is always interplay between entities – both of singular or plural composition – that can be defined as power relationships to do any number of infinite things in relation to another entity.
I always find it interesting that people (i.e. academics) spend so much time arguing over trivial things. I mean is it not common sense to think of power as an ability to do something in relation to another thing? Yet books and books are written about things that seem to be common sense. I mean there is always someone attempting to order pathways and sequences of where power rests within society and even causality. But how is this ever possibly definable? It’s like doing an infinite number of equations where infinity is used in an infinite number of variables an infinite number of times. How does one diagram and/or map the complexities of society’s every actor – human or otherwise – and honestly think that they can define anything? Power is completely subjective to time, space, and EVERY possible factor weighing on said scenario – I.e. infinitely. There can be no definition of a power system; it is indefinable, yet so thoroughly ingrained within our social fabric as to be indefinable. So why do we spend so much time trying to diagram patterns that ‘explain’ it all rather than just running with it?
Saturday, May 30, 2009
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