The difficult path of love

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”

George Orwell, 1984

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I shouldn’t have done it, really!

I was a precocious reader as a child and dove into 1984

Some time in the 60’s

Right after I read Atlas Shrugged

I know, right?

I remember my Junior High brain was mesmerized by

These dystopian novels

I confess I was seduced by the brilliant rebels in Atlas Shrugged,

Complicit with the belief that it was not “fair” for the bright and effective

to live in a world where the weak were given largesse they did not deserve

1984 just seemed surreal

and even though the shadow of Nazi Germany

still lingered, I could not envision the world ever going into that darkness again

but I underestimated the human lust for power and wealth,

and I did not understand how quickly people slide into cruelty

I should have known

I saw the “Lord of the Flies” reality play out on the playground

In the locker room

I was sometimes the target

I was a skinny late bloomer with big ears and ugly glasses

And sometimes (alas) I was the persecutor

I would like to think I was mostly kind, and accepting

(only my classmates can really tell you that0

But I had my moments

I remember a boy named Clarence Arlo Thompson

We called him CAT, because he had his initials indelible planted on all he owned

I don’t know his story, I never bothered to find out

He was smaller than I

And in Junior High terms, really different

He would run through the halls arms outspread, making airplane noises

We treated him poorly

It haunts me to this day

But what I know now,

That I did not know then,

Is the power of power

We love power

We love having power

We love using power

And for far too many there is an evil delight

In using that power

In using that power in ways that minimize, and diminish

That marginalize, that hurt

We love power

When we don’t have it we want it

When we have it, we will do anything to keep it

Anything

Lie

Cheat

Abuse

Oppress

Suppress

Anything

Orwell had it right

“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”

Right now, we live in a nation

where power has become an end

Something to be used, and enjoyed

Something to be abused, and exercised perversely

This issue with power is not new

The old pre-history story of Adam and Eve

Is a story about power

They didn’t want to be themselves, they wanted to “like God”

They wanted power

It is frightening, and appalling

Some of us believe in Sacred things

Some of us believe that there is a power, call it Love, call it whatever

That shapes the universe, and shapes us

Some of us believe that we carry a bit of that Sacred

That Love, within us

And some of us believe that when we are awake to that presence

We can find within ourselves, the ability to move away

From the House of Power and Domination

To that place where we choose Love

And compassion

And generosity

And Equity

Above power

It is not an easy path

The path of love

The path of service

It is scary

Dangerous

It makes us vulnerable

And sometimes we lose

But if we do not chose love over power

We are choosing cruelty over kindness

Apathy over compassion

Greed over generosity

And if we do not chose love over power

The world we create

Will look a lot like the one emerging

Right in front of our eyes

Is this who we want to be?