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March 15, 2008
A matter of scale?
Isn't it lucky for us all that people like Hitler, Stalin and Saddam crop up from time to time in history. They are obviously evil, doing evil things causing the problems that the rest of us have to live with, often having consequences centuries after their death. If it wasn't for these evil people us nice people would all be able to get along much better and the world would be a better place. Put an evil person into power and they will abuse their position causing misery, distress and usually far worst. But what happens when WE have power and how do we use it? Most of us will not be running nation states and most of those that do will probably not be reading this blog, but at work most of us are in a position of power over others even if it's for the briefest of moments. Anyone who visits a doctor’s surgery is at the mercy of the power and knowledge of the doctor. They can make us take off items of clothing and perform various acts we would normally consider totally inappropriate away from the privacy of our bedrooms. When driving up the motorway the doctor enters the domain of the traffic cops who for a brief moment have the power to cause misery and distress. When traffic cops enter a supermarket they come into the domain of the supermarket staff, those who know where everything is, how much is costs and have the power to decide when to open an extra till or close one before the cop gets to the end of the queue. In the bank the supermarket staff are now at the mercy of the bank staff that can play similar games with their customers.
So although we will never have the position of absolute power how we use the limited power, which we sometime get, can be very revealing about who we are.
Posted by Andy Mason at March 15, 2008 01:34 PM