In my last post I talked about four powers which we as human beings seek to control; power over death; power over nature; power over one another, and power over God. But these four powers which I discussed are really superficial and do not bring any lasting joy or happiness. One may be happy gaining these powers for a little while, but in achieving any sort of power you only increase your thirst for more. We fear losing this power the most, fear that some day someone or something will come by and take that power away from us; and so we fight to maintain it. This is ultimately a costly failure for no matter what you do, no matter the steps to take to maintain your position of power, you will eventually lose it.
But there is one more power that you can control, one that is not finite, that is created at your birth and dies with you. This power all men are born with; this power comes in the form of self awareness and self control. To know yourself, to know what makes you feel, act, cry, laugh; to know yourself is the greatest power one can ever hope to achieve. We know, from a very early age, that we are “we” and that others are “others.” This simple knowledge is the foundation of our ability to control our own minds. We distance ourselves from others and create in our mind the sense of “us” VS “them,” IE everyone else.
But this power that we are born with lies in our sub conscious, within the dark corners of our inner mind hiding from our conscious thought and we are, for the most part, unable to tap into its vas riches to obtain it. Because knowledge equals power, we must know ourselves in order to hold power over ourselves. To know ones self is to hold great power; in fact, to know ones self may be the greatest power any man could have. No man can escape death; no man could ever hope to control every other man, woman and child in this world, and no man could ever tame all the powerful forces of nature and natures God. Only the power over our minds, thoughts, and actions can be gained in this world, and ultimately it is this power which brings lasting peace.
To gain power over the four previous powers requires taking it from something else, and very often causing harm to others. The more you gain, the more the desire for more stalks you like a tiger though a jungle, preying on a helpless dear. Because of this the power one gains from our environment will, in the end, cause fear of losing said power, and an undying thirst for more. On the other hand, there is only so much power one can gain from their own mind, and once that power is gained it can not be lost, or taken away without great effort. There is no thirst for more and no fear of losing it; and so, although you achieve your goal, the thirst for more will be absent. It is because of this that by gaining control over ones own self you may be able to put aside the struggle for power and strive for other goals, happiness, belonging, and love.
Unfortunately this form of power is by far the hardest to achieve, and so few ever go down this road. But for those who do, for those who harness the power of their own minds, the rewards for doing so are as numerous as the stars in the heavens.
But there is one more power that you can control, one that is not finite, that is created at your birth and dies with you. This power all men are born with; this power comes in the form of self awareness and self control. To know yourself, to know what makes you feel, act, cry, laugh; to know yourself is the greatest power one can ever hope to achieve. We know, from a very early age, that we are “we” and that others are “others.” This simple knowledge is the foundation of our ability to control our own minds. We distance ourselves from others and create in our mind the sense of “us” VS “them,” IE everyone else.
But this power that we are born with lies in our sub conscious, within the dark corners of our inner mind hiding from our conscious thought and we are, for the most part, unable to tap into its vas riches to obtain it. Because knowledge equals power, we must know ourselves in order to hold power over ourselves. To know ones self is to hold great power; in fact, to know ones self may be the greatest power any man could have. No man can escape death; no man could ever hope to control every other man, woman and child in this world, and no man could ever tame all the powerful forces of nature and natures God. Only the power over our minds, thoughts, and actions can be gained in this world, and ultimately it is this power which brings lasting peace.
To gain power over the four previous powers requires taking it from something else, and very often causing harm to others. The more you gain, the more the desire for more stalks you like a tiger though a jungle, preying on a helpless dear. Because of this the power one gains from our environment will, in the end, cause fear of losing said power, and an undying thirst for more. On the other hand, there is only so much power one can gain from their own mind, and once that power is gained it can not be lost, or taken away without great effort. There is no thirst for more and no fear of losing it; and so, although you achieve your goal, the thirst for more will be absent. It is because of this that by gaining control over ones own self you may be able to put aside the struggle for power and strive for other goals, happiness, belonging, and love.
Unfortunately this form of power is by far the hardest to achieve, and so few ever go down this road. But for those who do, for those who harness the power of their own minds, the rewards for doing so are as numerous as the stars in the heavens.
9 comments:
The fact that you are thinking this deeply at the tender age of 19 is absolutely humiliating to me ;-)
I can't say that I radically disagree with anything you say here. But here's a thought to ponder - is knowing oneself really enough? Or do you also need to know where you rank on the spectrum of human nature and sociability? (Maybe this is implicit in your notion of knowing oneself?)
Mr. Chicken.
That’s why I love philosophy so much; it’s simply a way to define the world around you. Fun no?
I'd say that if you know your own self then you have gained that "inner power" over yourself and so, although you will still drive for power over your environment (the other 4 powers) you are not controlled by them. Before, your drive to control these 4 powers would consume you, you'd still be able to fight for other things, like love, happiness, belonging, but all these attempts would eventually be usurped by your drive for power. Find inner piece, and you can control your erg for more. Tell me if that answered your question or not.
I was thinking more along the lines of this: it is one thing to know oneself; it is another thing to understand human nature and where you fall along the bell curve of possible human natures. So rather than knowing oneself and thinking that everyone else will respond to things exactly as you would, knowing where you fall along the bell curve lets you understand your differences from the average human nature and how everyone else will respond to things differently than you would. The latter perspective may help to identify how you need to adjust the public expression of your own nature in order to more easily achieve things like love, happiness, and belonging.
Mr. Chicken.
I'd say its enough to know yourself. The goal of knowing yourself is not to be able to control the other powers, simply to be able to control your own actions, your own emotions, your own mind. You will still want have a drive to control others, and to do that you must learn about others, but the difference is that now you will be able to control your desire for power instead of it controling you. If you know yourself you can leave the vicouse cycle, I think, and that gives you a much better chance for happiness.
Does empathy play any role here, or is it all about power?
"Does empathy play any role here, or is it all about power?"
How do you mean?
I'm just wondering if your philosophical theory of power contains the notion of empathy, altruism, and so on, or if these attributes are not real but rather manifestations of the overall pursuit of power?
Mr. Chicken.
Power isn't the only thing in the world we want, only the biggest and most dominant. We all want to be happy, to feel like we belong, but power overpowers all of that so that almost everything we do, almost, is in pursuit of power. Now, there are certain actions I myself cannot attribute to a power struggle, like the concept of love. Love very often implies giving up your own power for the well being of another without gaining any power in return. Now, by giving up some of your physical power you may in fact gain some mental power, I'll have to think about that, but let’s just stick with physical power for now. If life is nothing but a power struggle why would anyone sacrifice their power for absolutely nothing? I'd say the person who is able to do this on consistent bases has gained power over their own mind and is therefore capable of pursuing happiness ahead of power. Without this I'd question the motives. I hope that answered your question. You are capable of acting out of your self interest (at least concisely) but you must have control over your own mind (the 5th power) to do it.
David Hartley has a different spin on this - having helped others once in a way that benefits both the others and ourselves, we start to develop an association between helping others and the pleasant feeling that leaves us with. And the more we do this, the stronger the association becomes. At some point, the association between helping others and the pleasant feeling becomes so strong that we cease to feel the need to do things that benefit both others and ourselves - we are quite willing to do things that only benefits others. We have developed a capacity for pure disinterested benevolence.
Mr. Chicken.
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