Redefining Power

Power - ‘the ability to act or do’.

The very word power has become so aligned with governments, corporations, the media and other forces which appear to shape our world, that we lose sight of this basic dictionary definition - ‘the ability to act or do’ - which places the word squarely in the hands of the individual.

There is no disputing the power that these institutions have in the modern world, but we should not forget that they are composed of individual human beings. We apparently vote politicians into office and, supposedly, have the power to remove them.

Similarly, since corporations were created to serve human interests, surely we have the power to disband them should society decide that they have ceased to do so? In fact, this was a basic premise of the Corporate Charter that gave them birth in the first place.

Through the atomising impacts that the global economy and modern technologies have on society, we have been conditioned, almost indoctrinated to believe that the individual has been completely disempowered and there is little he or she can do to prevent the inevitable: the onward march of progress, the outbreak of wars, world poverty, the destruction of the rainforest, global warming and the extinction of species.

A new definition of power is now appearing in the world - one which dispels the illusion that the individual is powerless, or that power only lies within the institutions that humans have created, like governments and corporations, rather than with human beings themselves.

A definition that proves that we have the power to help create the world we want, rather than being told how it has to be.