Coevolutionary Power

Provocations on the nature of power

For Foster Season 4: A More Beautiful Question I pulled on a thread stemming from the question, “How might we expand our awareness of power?” 

The following is a series of provocations that arose in that investigation and are intended to spark further inquiry (the question remains very much unanswered, after all):

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We all feel power and powerlessness, even when non-explicit or unconscious.

The power we feel is most often an illusion veiling our powerlessness. The powerlessness we feel often obscures our true power.

Addiction is the illusion of power powering powerlessness.

Our wanting power stems from lacking it, and lacking perpetuates our powerlessness. Our not-wanting power is powerful, and begets greater power.

We become more powerful as we relinquish our power.

Reckonings occur when it turns out we did not have the power we thought we did. Realization occurs when we recognize we are powerful beyond imagination. The most powerful realizations are reckonings.

Stewardship is the responsible oversight of power. Humility is the essential ingredient to stewardship.

King Midas pursues power and is humiliated.
King Arthur serves a calling and is given great power.

Insecure-power grasps and clings to itself, leaving a trail of scorched earth behind it. Secure-power releases and transcends itself. 

Tyrants are insecure-power.

Pharaoh killed the Hebrew children after his scribes warned him of the impending birth of Moses. King Herod did the same to prevent the rise of Jesus. Stalin purged millions in his paranoia. In our psyche this can be the anxiety, panic and insomnia that accompanies the first signs of a transition. Tyrants rule through fear.

Insecure-power is irresponsible-power. Secure-power is responsible-power.

Echo gives all her power to Narcissus, and Narcissus claims all his power for himself. Both wither away a long and painful death. 

Narcissism is an insecure misuse of power. Narcissism is addiction to self.

Our greatest power is how we choose to pay attention. We might pay greater attention to our power.

Insecure-power doesn’t want you to pay attention. Secure power does.

The problem isn’t power asymmetry, and the solution isn’t equal power. The problem is power-unconsciousness and the solution is an expanded awareness of power.

Israel holds power-over Palestine.

Hurt people (with power) hurt people. 

Ignorance and delusion obfuscate and perpetuate irresponsible-power. Narrative warfare perpetuates ignorance and delusion.

We heal by recognizing the full extent of our powerlessness. We heal by recognizing the full extent of our power, and by taking responsibility for it.

Most harm is done by people unaware of their power-over people unaware of their power-under.

The powerful demanding the powerless claim their power perpetuates their powerlessness.

Coevolutionary relationships and communities work consciously to bring awareness to power-over and power-under dynamics and soften them, thus stepping into a power-with and power-toward paradigm.

Coevolutionary beings are aware both of the power their environment has over them, and the power they have over their environment, thus stepping into a power-with relationship. 

Relinquishing power is inherently coevolutionary. So is claiming power. Relinquishing and claiming power can only be done in relationship. Power is always relational.

Power-over earth tells us that we are the masters of our environment. Power-under earth tells us we are helpless victims of inevitable planetary doom. Power-with and power-toward paradigms call us into a participatory coevolutionary relationship with our planet earth.

We are being called into conscious coevolution. 

Power-over distrusts others.
Power-under distrusts self.
Power-with and toward deepens trust in self, others, and higher power(s).

Surrendering to a higher power is both a claiming and relinquishing.