Thoughts on the Concepts of Power and Love

Disclaimer: I was trying to define how my thesis research is "critical," and ended up with a collection of thoughts about and around the concept of power, that have no place in my thesis, as yet. They are is "unofficial" because they are just my own thoughts, no references here!

We often create enemies, or those we consider to be "other," to give ourselves a sense of power and control. By doing this, we feel superior, justified, right, and like we are doing something about the problem. But by directing our suspicion, hate, doubt, and anger, we are usually just covering up our own insecurities in action. It makes us feel less vulnerable. We turn our own perceived fears and insecurities outward-- which is less scary that noting it in ourselves.

So, what do we do about it? We might try to break through our own personal barriers (hate, racism, ignorance) by looking at art. Through art we might begin to move toward self-knowledge by directly acknowledging our vulnerabilities (that art helped us see or express). Thus we can begin to approach our fears with healing, with love. Consequently, we might rearrange our values from feelings like, "you're wrong, so I'm going to alienate/destroy you," to feelings like, "I'm afraid of what happens to me if you're not alienated/destroyed," then, "I know I will be okay if we work together" and ultimately to "I love you". We might move from alienation to outward empathy and love for all.

I don't think life often works that way, but perhaps one by one in our daily relationships we can change the world.