Power

[poliphilo]

I had power once; footling amounts of it, but still enough to make me feel special.

It was fun.

I was the vicar of a small parish in the north of England. I didn't like my churchwardens and I suspected they didn't like me.

Now the churchwardens are supposed to be the representatives of the people; the people elect them and they're there to keep t' bloody vicar in check. This didn't stop me sniffing out and promoting candidates to run against the chaps I didn't like. Ooh, the ducking and diving and back-stabbing- and all of it conducted under a razzle-dazzle camoflauge of sunny smiles and Christian fellowship. It was a thrilling time and I won.

In the process I learned that the powerful:

(1)find democracy inconvenient and will do all they can to subvert it;

(2)are hungry for love and approval;

(3)lose touch with reality;

(4)lose all sense of proportion;

(5)persist in regarding themselves as the good guys in spite of all evidence to the contrary;

(6)believe, again in the teeth of all the evidence, that they alone know best;

(7)are permanently high on the excitement of it all;

(8)are intolerant of criticism and squash it where they can;

(9)will lie and lie and lie, rather than admit the slightest failing or weakness (even to themselves).

Once I'd worked all this out (which took many years) I resolved never to place myself in a position of power again.

Comments

[cybersofa.livejournal.com]

Perfect description of the Dear Leader. No wonder Private Eye calls him the Vicar.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Initially I was going to make the link with the DL explicit, but then I thought, naah, it speaks for itself.

[shullie.livejournal.com]

lol you sound like a pastor i once knew...and who was one of the reasons i left the church, sadly i don't think he will ever 'work' it out

thanks for being so honest...

as the saying goes 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'

xxx

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And it corrupts very quickly.

The tribune of the people goes over to the side of the ruling class almost as soon as he achieves high office.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Yeppers, organized religions in a nutshell. Thanks.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And not just organised religion I think, but any organisation with a hierarchy.

[kinderheldin.livejournal.com]

Yes, that aptly describes the school system.

I appreciated this entry immensely -- I've been given and denied power. Once denied it (when I earned the title but due to the "old boy" system, wasn't someone the higher ups wanted to hang with), I was able to see right through it. It's harder to see through it, as an "it," when one rises up quickly or young.

Glad to see you saved your soul! :>

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I had a second flirtation with power- as a Wiccan high priest. Instead of taking a position within a pre-existing hierarchy, I was creating my own, with myself at the apex. If anything, the temptations were even more insidious and lethal.

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

Slight OT, but what with your former profession and your interest in ghost stories, have you tried the Merrily Watkins books by Phil Rickman?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've had them recommended to me. Now that they've been recommended twice I need to take notice. :)

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

I am Phil Rickman's squeeing fangirl.

Churchwardens and Phil Rickman

[methodius.livejournal.com]

And I too recommend Phil Rickman.

I was once Rector of an Anglican parish in a village in Zululand, and the churchwardens thought that their main job was to collect complaints and grievances and bring them to me.

I believed (and still believe) that power is most dangerous when concentrated in a few hands, and is safer when diffused. Nicodemuses coming by night seemed a bit manipulative and underhand to me. So if there was a contentious issue, I would say "Let's have a parish meeting, and let everybody discuss it"

So instead of "People say...." being retailed by hearsay, the people could some and speak for themselves.

Another thing I learned was that if you give people responsibility, they behave responsibly.

Because the village was small, there was no high school, and at the age of 12 or so kids went to boarding schools in other towns. Once during the Christmas (summer) holidays someone organised some activities for the youth, and kids of all ages, 4-18, came along.

When the school term began, the activities ended, and then an 11-year-old phoned me, and asked if there was going to be a youth meeting that Friday night. I said, if you want one, organise it yourself. I'll be there to help if you need me. She did, to the astonishment of her family -- she was regarded as a slow learner and a bit of a problem. She phoned all sorts of people to persuade them to come along, organised refreshments, etc. I enjoyed being a consultant. What I hated was teaching Sunday school, or any other kind of school, because that required being in a position of authority.

I could really agree with St Paul when he described heaven as a condition in which all rule, authority and power have been abolished.

Re: Churchwardens and Phil Rickman

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like this way of doing things.

I wonder whether the pattern of diffused authority is applicable to larger societies like, say, the nation state?

Re: Churchwardens and Phil Rickman

[methodius.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately it works best at face to face level, and the more people there are involved, the more difficult it is.

A parish was OK. The one thing I got authoritarian about was that at the parish level the parish meeting was important -- a kind of monthly vestry meeting with the decisions made by consensus rather than majority vote, and anyone could have their say -- kids, old people, everyone. And the job of the rector/vicar is to help things happen rather than make them happen.

It's easy to manipulate people when the churchwardens fiddle things in private meetings on the golf course and come back and say "People say..." but when you get the people together, you see what the people actually say. It's hard to do that at the level of a nation state.

Another example. There was a series of ecumenical meetings, to decide on some common action. Eventually we gathered a bunch of people from different denominations, divided them into groups, and each group was to arrange some aspect of whatever it was. We put all the clergy in one group, and most of them kept saying "My people won't like this..." And we said "Your people are here, they can speak for themselves, now what do YOU think."

At a bigger level -- city council, provincial or local or national government, other methods may be necessary. I've found Saul Alinski's Rules for radicals quite useful. And it's a rather fun read, even if some of the methods he describes aren't going to be of immediate use.

One that amused me was a big company, Kodak, I think, not listening to the workers. So they packed a meeting that some big cheese was addressing, and fed everyone generous helpings of baked beans beforehand.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Do you really think this is universal? Or is it just how YOU handle power?

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

Do you really think Tony's the only vicar who has behaved as he describes?

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I doubt it. But my questions really are questions.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing. I know that both times I've had power (in completely irrelevant organizations, which may make a difference) I did my job, such as it was, and got out very quickly. In both cases, I was the Tribune of the People, and I didn't like the flak that comes with power very much.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I was head of my prof. org. for two years, and while I may have lost all sense of proportion, I tried to be as participatory as possible.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There are those who don't want power and never did; I wasn't one of them. I was never hugely ambitious, but I did greatly enjoy being cock of my very small dunghill.

No-one likes the flak. That's why totalitarian regimes shoot and imprison journalists and intellectuals- and why democratic ones try to bribe and/or intimidate them.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Or co-opt them.

I was listening to Bill Clinton in an hour-long radio interview yesterday, and I was re-impressed at what a schmoozer he is. He made several salient points in the Nicest Possible Way.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Maybe a few highly evolved souls avoid the pitfalls, but from all I've seen and read and otherwise observed, I think it's universal.

Although I was using myself as an example, I was thinking about Tony Blair.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I got that, about Tony Blair. I find your comments about him fascinating, because I really have no feeling for him.

Jackie's comments filled in the part I was missing, the whole touching-God element, which is so crucial.

I have to know

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

Is "footling" pronounced in two syllables, "foot-ling", or in three syllables, "foo-tl-ing"?

Re: I have to know

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I pronounce it as two syllables, but I think some people stretch it to three.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I've never been in a position of power, but I have been around people who were, and few--none--would be this honest about it.

My sisters were very popular in school, something I never experienced, being an introverted reader-in-corners. They both said they worried all the time about losing their place at the top.

I've known more than one retired man who was once in a high position at work, and in retirement they seemed baffled and hurt that no one saw them as important anymore.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Power is a powerful drug. What must it do to someone like Bush or Blair or Putin or any national leader to see his face plastered all over the media all the time, to receive that constant attention and flattery and subservience?

I got just the weakest taste of it and the buzz was huge.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I do think that doctors and vicars--medicine men and shamans--are offered adulation. It irritates me how often they come to believe they are gods, but part of the problem is that people tend to want to worship, and people who are apparently supernatural get worshipped.

People want God to touch them, and they will try to find God in their doctors and their priests.

Jackie, Generalizer

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

This makes sense to me--and helps me understand Tony's comments.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Hi, Karen. Thanks.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

For a priest or doctor there is the extra temptation of spiritual pride.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

the extra temptation of spiritual pride

Chosen by God. Touched by God. Special.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

AKA why I am a Quaker.:)