The power

DEFINITION

Power = having the possibility, the capacity to...

Human beings, in their vast majority, cannot resist this possibility which is offered to them to do what is not normally authorized by morality, when it no longer has eyes or ears. Impunity through status, function and/or the silence and darkness of a closed place, apart, when the slightest hierarchy is created: that of the adult over the child, of the man on the woman, or on her dog, of the leader on the people, of the caregiver on the sick, of the soldier on the civilian, of the White man on all the Others, etc. Power is offered by the distinction of value that we make between beings, and which would give us a right over the way in which we treat them.

The normalization and trivialization of abuse, repeated for ages, has given birth to a legend, or a virilist ideology, which justifies by "the nature of things" and minimizes by "it happens every day, it's life" . It is the ideology of the dominant, magnificent, strong and proud, who must dominate without shame, but it is only an ideology. It is in no way a natural or biological state as they like to make us believe so that it continues. This imaginary attribute of patriarchy “authorizes”, “allows”, gives “the power to”, by divine nature. Believers or atheists, they always find themselves in agreement on the question. Changing our habits requires a lot of courage, just in the little everyday things, so changing an old planetary order?! To agree to detoxify from centuries of addiction, it would take a lot of courage. Isn't this the main attribute of men, normally? If the few people who question this functioning are accused either of whiners or utopians, the blind and deaf majority are undoubtedly, for their part, perfectly defeatist, resigned and complacent.

FUNCTIONING

Power is inherently inequitable, since there must be a dominant and a dominated. Unless you spin it, but when you've had it for so long, you hang on to it. It is exercised under threat:

• implicitly: through the techniques of power or the mechanism of discipline (Foucault). Through systematic surveillance and control, reproduced everywhere in society. The individual loses his freedom to invisibility (as in Bentham's panopticon). There is no way to escape this surveillance (no need for Orwell's Big Brother; everyone does it at their own level). The person being monitored is forced to obey or risks sanctions (popular or legal). The individual has no choice but to submit to power, whatever it may be, democratic or totalitarian. He manages to accept it for “the common good”, because the freedom of the individual disappears with the freedom of the group.

• explicitly: when power goes off the rails and loses control, it constrains by force. But the notion of obedience is lost to give way to servitude. Obedience to power is limited by a form of consent or adhesion, “for the common good”, therefore. When consent is taken away (it is not for nothing that we speak of the “violation” of our freedoms), by imposing by force, violence, reprisals, prohibitions, threats, by withdrawing the right to the protest... we are sinking into another form of regime. Because the level of democracy is measured by the way power is exercised, above all, and not by the ballot box. There is no democracy when there is no dialogue, when discourse only serves to coerce.

The ideology of the dominant, under the guise of capitalism, remains a religion. In the end, it's the same big megalomaniac psychosis that just changes its name. By bludgeoning (literally and figuratively), this vision of the world and the “nature of things” becomes indisputable (literally and figuratively, too). We should not be surprised that “we the Judeo-Christians” come back with enthusiasm. But in complete secularism of course! Always this overwhelming divine word to which the dominated must submit, willingly or by force, even if it goes against their survival and that of the entire planet.

Thousands of years ago, Greek philosophers (as well as all the thinkers of this world, in all eras) already warned us of possible deviations, and of the need to control the source. “Always separate power from the common good", they said, “so as not to sink into despotism or oligarchy.” Do not let power put its big hairy hands in these resources (material and immaterial) supposed to belong to no one, or to everyone. Common good diverted, appropriated and destroyed for the well-being of a few, asserting the particular interest of the dominant, over the general interest of the billions of the dominated.

WHAT DOES REAL BIOLOGY SAY?

Body and mind are one. It is a fact! This has been known for thousands of years, but since we have always been smarter than everyone else, and “we don’t care”, we put it aside. Science has finally proven this ancestral knowledge right.

Why are these dominants crazy? Dopamine. That's the drug of power (+ other substances that don't help anything...). As soon as we obtain power, the secretion of this hormone is triggered, and brings great satisfaction. The body then demands a new dose. The classic reward circuit on which we are all dependent. We want more. And even more. Snowball effect obliges, first degree drugged, the man becomes a despot. The effects of this hormone in overdose are: loss of empathy and benevolence, blindness, altered reasoning, inability to act intelligently, impulsivity...

The more we try to contradict the dominant, the more he feels watched and criticized, and the more he refuses to face his mistakes, to question himself, and crushes everyone like ants. It starts with delusions of grandeur and ends in bloodshed. Openly attacking the dominant person fuels his rage and madness. It is counterproductive and dangerous.

And the dominated in all this? Why does he let it happen? Cortisol. Deprived of freedom, oppressed, his body secretes the hormone of physical and emotional stress. This hormone will also act on one's thoughts and behaviors. Thus, the dominated dwells on the injustices and misfortunes that constitute his life, and nothing else, so that his body has its dose of cortisol. He is suffocated by the domination inflicted on him, drowned in his own body which is slowly self-destructing. Chronic stress caused by the permanent production of cortisol causes: insomnia, inflammation, depression, psychosomatic illnesses... All this has a strong impact on the general state of health and on life expectancy (that the dominated eats healthily or not, or prefers to watch VODs). His body is destroyed, along with his hopes and his desire. Making the dominated person responsible for his situation, and a posteriori for his general state, is an absolute aberration which adds to the injustice, and drives the knife deeper into the wound so that he never recovers.

That this dominated person sinks into violence is a survival instinct: to regain a little power to reverse the balance, and infinitely improve his quality of life. Dopamine is nicer than cortisol. We have much better shape and self-esteem. Please note: the influence of our hormones in no way justifies abuse and violence, on either side, because we are always conscious beings and responsible for our actions. However, they allow us to understand the mechanisms that encourage these behaviors, in spite of ourselves.

We can therefore say that, both the dominant and the dominated become slaves to their state, their hormones, as well as their habits and their thoughts. The only solution: deprogram yourself, recreate new neural patterns, to reduce the secretion of these hormones that have become harmful, and relearn the body, as well as the mind, to find balance and health. It takes a lot of effort, and requires help. Being aware of what drives us is already a good start to taking the necessary perspective. Observing yourself is the goal of mindfulness, meditation, and all the traditional so-called “holistic” medicines that are coming back into fashion, not without reason.

THE NECESSARY BALANCE

No, the nature of things is not absolute domination and total crushing. Nature is made of balance, osmotic pressure, individual and collective survival instinct.

To regain this natural balance in our so-called civilized societies, we must re-establish the link between power and this notion of the common good, or on the contrary distance them from each other. I remind you, while we are in Judeo-Christian terms, that the common good, according to the Catholic religion (for example), represents the entire Creation. Each individual must respect each creature as he respects his own life. So, if you are a believer, tell yourself that you are destroying his Creation, and that he must appreciate it. What is our common good: all of the resources of this planet, such as water, as well as all biodiversity. It is also the climate that allows us to live on this Earth. All these things that should not belong to anyone, nor be bought, nor sold, nor destroyed for the short-term profit of a few, to the detriment of the survival of all, in the long term.

How to change things? What can we do? Change, in nature, comes from an individual, or a small group, but rarely if ever from the unified and conditioned crowd. Being responsible for yourself is a crucial point. No longer wait for everything to come from outside like the medicines you swallow. Act as animals know how to do when the survival of the group is threatened: some move away from the herd. Others end up following, little by little. And they create a new community in a more hospitable environment where they can all feed themselves.

How was human life organized before capitalism, for thousands, millions of years? Because, yes! capitalism and its immutable laws did not appear with the BigBang! And yes! humanity is millions of years old, and only a few thousand under domination. There is a fabulous system that has proven itself without ever failing, and is extremely effective: cooperation. It is not a utopia or a communist ideology, but a fact, a lost natural state. This is how hunter gatherers lived, and how they still live for those who managed to survive us. No leader. No hierarchy. An election from time to time in the event of a serious crisis, so that the wisest finds the way, and then everyone returns to their place, the same for everyone. And you know what? This is still practiced, even among us, here, now: cooperatives, that's what they're called. One person = one vote. Everyone participates, everyone acts, everyone decides, for the good of all, without seeking profit but a simple and equitable life. The healthy power of good intelligence.

Having a healthy mind in a healthy body is the start of the fight. To escape madness, you simply have to take a step aside. Being aware of this reality is essential: our thoughts and emotions provoke responses from our body and vice versa, just as our actions produce effects on what surrounds us and vice versa. Everything is interconnected. This fact has been known for thousands of years by all people on Earth, and corroborated by science in an increasingly precise manner. We have cut ourselves off from this ancestral and essential knowledge, through pride and vanity, but the whole world is paying the price. The only truth is that: the majority of us have no control, no mastery, no awareness of our own functioning, but believe themselves to be powerful, knowledgeable, and superior, think they have no problems and can survive anything. Regaining awareness of this holistic nature of existence is a necessity for the well-being of all. Regain awareness of our smallness, our insignificance, and our ephemeral nature, too.

We will return to the quest for mindfulness and cooperation in other posts.

Until then... don't forget to look up to the sky from time to time.

ED

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