I heard a pastor say, "It is possible to go to hell a smarter person." How foolish are those who destroy Truth and then beg for its fruits.
I can agree with the gist of it.
I have my own theory about the "power" of these people. It's just that, despite all the wrong things they may be doing, they had to do some right things to get to accumulate it. Not everything is black and white. Even some "not good" people can have some merit. But this enters into a different set of thoughts.
But, in my opinion, I hesitate to call it "power" altogether. I think that, perhaps, many times we not know what power is. The way I see it, power can be something even spiritual, so to speak, far removed from what is ordinarily called power. It has nothing to do with an office, a position or a popularity contest. A person who has nothing can be more powerful than a person with thousands of fortunes. But we are so used to thinking with our eyes that we do not believe in the invisible, and power is one of these unseen things. Maybe it's more something that you feel.
There is a story of a monk who was disobeying a foreign military. The military said to him, "Don't you know that you are facing a man who can kill, if he want so?" The monk replied, "Don't you know that you are facing a man who can let himself be killed, if he want so?"
Power resides in virtue, I think, or perhaps follows it. I think it was Aquinas who said that power and good are one and the same thing, although I am not sure about it. I see power as something in itself, just like good or justice, etc. It is non-physical. Being powerful is more a quality of the psyche.
But I digress.
I welcome any point of view, so you can feel free to add to it as you please.
What you said about power I actually tried to wave into my post. Though in a more implicit way.
The story of the monk reminds me of my grand dad, and his experience in prison camp. Maybe you remember it, when I talked about the historical events within my own family. It comes very close to what you have given as an anecdote about the monk.
We see that all along in movies, yet we don't apply that to our own lives, since we are usually in no way ready to face death (and I am not saying that I am that kind of human).
The term "power" is loaded, that is right.
When you are faced with what it actually is, when it is talked about one person wanting the other one to bend, submit to whatever might be the issue, the better term is probably "violence" or "coercion". Someone using violence upon you, to give into his will is one who, in principle, feels powerless to use other means than violence.
There is also the phenomena, when people feel powerless, they find the umbrella under which they want to gather, in order not having to be the ones personally to act out violence, but having others doing it for them.
So yeah, I agree with your additional thoughts on "power".
I completely agree.
Yes, I do. It is undoubtedly a impressive story. Maybe in the future we can talk more about it.
Greetings.