Power and Love
Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time attempting to identify the most fundamental forces in life. I’ve come to believe that there are just two- power and love.
I ask that you try to shed from your mind any preconceived definitions of what these two words might mean, and offer you the following below. These definitions are inspired by the work of Adam Kahane.
Power: the driving force in every living thing to realize its full potential as an individual.
Love: the inevitable unification of all that is living.
These two forces are constantly competing against one another- within us and throughout the world’s life system.
They underscore everything about us and all that surrounds us. Power derives from the notion that the individual is distinct and separate from the world that surrounds it, love from the idea that we are rather a component of it…A gear in the machine of life. A wave barreling through the ocean.
Through a biological lens, power can be viewed as the force that cracks the flower’s seed; thrusting its roots deep into the earth and its stem up through the ground’s surface. It is the force that propels its petals and leaves up into the air to absorb the water and light that pour down upon it.
And love…the predestined death that this flower will face. Perhaps it is eaten up by a passing rabbit. Perhaps it withers when struck by winter’s frost. Regardless, its decomposed matter and energy will, in time, unify with all that surrounds it; feeding the organisms around.
Through an economic lens, power can be viewed as the opening of a rural Walmart in 1997. With the flick of a switch, hundreds of jobs are created and inexpensive goods become available for the local citizens.
Yet, with time, the anti-competitive consequences a multinational conglomerate puts all the local business owners out of business. The local economy begins to deteriorate, eventually to the point at which the Walmart store itself is forced to close. Inevitable unification.
Power and love.
These forces are found in our everyday lives too. In fact, they drive every thought we think, every word we speak, every action we take.
Power exists primarily in our search for the following three human needs:
- Security
- Achievement
- Status
And love, through three others:
- Purpose
- Creativity
- Belonging
It is not that power and love are good or bad. They are destructive. They are constructive. They are omnipresent.
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr.- “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.”
We must find a balance between the two to achieve actualization as individuals and as a society.
In the context of this COVID-19 crisis, the absence of power would leave us unable to respond to the virus, resulting in an annihilation of the human species. The absence of love could lead to an authoritarian regime with a domestic military presence and gratuitous biometric surveillance.
When brought together though, power and love can be found in the pharmaceutical race to develop a COVID-19 vaccination (achievement & purpose). They are seen in the conversion of clothing factories to mask suppliers (security & creativity). They arise in the formation and overnight virality of a social distancing cultural norm (status & belonging).
Power and love.
In what ways do these forces underscore your life?
How can you channel these forces to achieve actualization?
