Empowerment

By John Talbut

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28th September 2016

Towards a More Empowered World

The need to support people throughout the world to learn to be more in their own power, more empowered, is the most urgent task facing us. This is because nearly all the other problems that we face result from poor decisions, in particular decisions that are not in the genuine best interests of the people making them. More empowered people make better decisions.

Empowerment is also one of the most difficult tasks facing us. There are many people and organisations that are actively oppressing people, in other words coercing them into being less powerful. They want people to be obedient, unquestioning wage slaves and consumers. They want to ensure that the plutocratic hegemony, the dominance and rule of rich people, is not threatened. They are doing this generally because of their own powerlessness, it is not really in their own interests as human beings. Powerlessness begets more powerlessness and the situation is getting worse.

One of the ways in which people are disempowered is by the misuse of language. Look at how advertisers use words to suggest something when actually the words mean nothing or something irrelevant.

“Power” is a word that is used loosely with oppressive effect. It is variously used to mean, for example, authority, resources, influence or might. “The prime minister has the power to do something.” More precisely they have the authority to do something. Other people have influence or resources. This use of the word “power” really means control, the ability to control what other people do, and can be referred to as “power over”.

Using the word in this way carries the oppressive message that if we are not in a position to be able to exercise “power over” other people, because we do not have the authority or resources etc., then we are powerless. This is not true, the only thing that stops us acting powerfully is because we feel powerless, and this is the consequence of our oppression.

I aim to be precise when I write and I will describe here what I mean by “power” in the context of a human being. I am referring to personal power, or “power from within”. Unless I make it clear otherwise this is the meaning I intend. Empowerment is helping people to learn to be more powerful, to be more in touch with their power from within. Oppression is the opposite of this. I distinguish oppression from persecution, or ill treating people, which may or may not be oppressive – sometimes it can lead to people discovering more of their own power.

Power – the word comes the Latin “posse”, to be able – is the ability to choose from the possibilities in any situation. It is variable, people are more or less powerful in various ways. Being more powerful involves three things:

I regard the primacy of empowerment as a core ethical principle. In other words for something to be ethical it must support people being more in their own power.

I want everyone to adopt this principle. That means using the three components of being more powerful as guides to what we do. Do our actions support others in each of these three ways?