[Vulnerability and Power - XXXIV]
Killing is the highest expression of power. To end a life is to quite literally have ultimate power over that person or thing.
Is that true?
I’m not sure it is. Perhaps it’s ultimate influence. Maybe ultimate control. Definitely ultimate violence. But power?
I’m beginning to think killing is a form of weakness, an expression of cowardice and fear. Killing ends conflict. (This is true between two humans but also true between me and the gopher in my garden.) Killing is the enactment of the truth that the person with the bigger “gun” would rather end the conflict than continue to hold space for it.
Killing is easier than sustained conflict. It’s easier than working toward—no matter how long it takes!—a less violent solution.
The highest expression of power is to hold space for conflict *without killing*, figuratively or literally. (It also evenly distributes vulnerability.)
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