[Vulnerability & Power - XVI]
We watch most public discourse with the same astonishment we watch a car wreck. There’s carnage everywhere and we can’t not watch. But we shouldn't be astonished, as we’ve finally arrived at the “product" of our own creation. Power has been defined as the top position of dominance for generations. And here we are: everything is a joust for power.
"Dark power" is the power we believe in and lust after. It’s power-over.
What I need, even if it is in absurd excess, is acquired at your expense. Expense of your material needs. Of your character. Of your wellbeing. I will deny your needs (which is really your access to life, your very humanity) en route to meeting mine.
Until we begin risking vulnerability in public life (and in the cultural imagination in general) we will continue to operate on the assumption that my position of power demands your position of weakness. Any other consideration is a threat to my (real or perceived) dominance.
And we will continue to watch car wreck after car wreck until we’re all battered and in the ER.
