c. 1996 Religion News Service
(Body & Soul is a regular column exploring the interplay between spirituality and psychology. Pythia Peay is the author of”Putting America on the Couch,”to be published by Riverhead Books in 1997.)
(UNDATED) As Americans prepare to vote in the upcoming presidential election, they will be exercising their power as citizens in the world’s leading democracy. It is a right that some will disregard _ and that others will carry out with thoughtful concern.
In fact, power isn’t just something we hand over to our elected politicians. However great or ordinary, most of us wield some kind of power, be it political, parental, intellectual, sexual, economic or religious.
But because power is so often assumed to be the sole province of those in positions of authority, it’s interesting to think about the many ways it can be used.
The British statesman Benjamin Disraeli, for instance, described power as”a trust”for which a leader was totally accountable. Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger called it”the great aphrodisiac.”A lot of people, however, hold to the idea that power is inherently bad. Many of us have grown up believing in the axiom that power corrupts _ and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung wrote that where there is the”will to power,”there can be no love.
Negative images of power, says historian Ori Soltes, a professor of Fine Arts at Georgetown University and director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick Museum in Washington, D.C., stem in part from our vague sense of history.”We’ve seen enough `Hollywoodizations’ of history,”he says,”to automatically link power with corruption.” Soltes, who has lectured on Western civilization in Rome and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, says he is sometimes asked why so many Roman Emperors seemed to”go off the deep end.” Those emperors who abused their office, says Soltes, did so because once they tasted power, they found themselves hungering for more. Caligula, for instance, ascended the throne as a brilliant young man. Four years later, after demanding to be worshiped as a god, he was assassinated.
Examples such as Caligula, Nero or Caesar, says Soltes, were more rare than is commonly thought. Still, it is the image of the emperor _ or his wife _ driven mad by power that influences our perceptions of economic and political leaders today.
Seeking to find alternatives to authoritarian modes of wielding authority with more positive models of power, some thinkers have turned to pre-modern cultures for inspiration. For instance, feminist scholar Rianne Eisler, author of”The Chalice and the Blade”(Harper & Row), uncovered evidence of a more egalitarian style of leadership in Neolithic cultures and in the ancient civilization of Minoan Crete.
Centered around worship of goddesses _ rather than fierce warrior gods _ these pre-patriarchal societies derived feelings of empowerment from kinship with people and connection to nature. Then, Eisler says, women and men ruled together in harmony.
In Eisler’s view, modern-day movements such as feminism, environmentalism, conflict resolution and men’s growing involvement in family life all are attempts to resurrect more cooperative styles of leadership that seek to empower others.
Soltes agrees that throughout history two kinds of power have prevailed:”There’s power that’s self-focused and exclusionary,”he explains,”and power that’s inclusionary and seeks to serve others.” But where Eisler glimpses signs of a new narrative of power emerging, Soltes sadly concludes that we are doomed to re-enact the same story that has repeated itself over time.
As a civilization, he says, we have made enormous advancements in technology. But,”as a species we are still fighting about the same things our ancestors were four or five millenia ago _ only now we have the ability at the flick of a wrist to destroy each other.” On a more hopeful note, however, Soltes says America represents a different kind of governance from any civilization that has come before, including Athenian democracy. In fact, he points out,”the very heart of the ideals embodied in our Constitution concern the right use of power.” It was George Washington, he says, who set America on its unique course of destiny by refusing to appoint himself king after his second term as president. Instead, Soltes reminds us, Washington stepped down and went back to his farm. It was an abdication of power that shocked all of Europe.
Historians since then have viewed Washington as similar to one of the early figures of the Roman Republic, Cincinnatus, who also retired to his farm following his career of public service. Soltes points out that in Washington, D.C., today there are statues portraying our first president as Cincinnatus, celebrating the image of the”soldier-farmer”who, instead of keeping power for himself, gave it up.
Who knows how the next president we choose _ be it Bob Dole or Bill Clinton _ will handle the power entrusted to him by the American people? Will he use the most powerful office in the world to advance a narrow, self-interested agenda? Or will he remain faithful to our forefather’s original ideals?
For those who think of power as only crude or destructive, it is inspiring to know that in the hands of a wise person _ or society _ power is ultimately a force that can effect great good for humankind.
MJP END PEAY
