From: falcao@felix.Metaphor.COM (Ronnie Falcao)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Power myth
Date: 30 Sep 1992 15:35:07 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

> The `power myth' is described as the belief that one's ``worth as a human
> being'' is correlated to power available.  This indirection, through
> a mysterious category `human worth' is unecessary and, i think, psychologicly
> misleading.  I don't think `power freaks' (people for whom pursuit of power
> obscures reasonable boundries) can be stereotyped as caring about an
> abstract `worth'.
> 
> Power creates its own value by delivering material advantage to those who
> weild it.  It is not necessary to look for a socially constructed reason
> for people to pursue power -- that pusuit seems to me to be fundamental to
> the `hill climbing' character of brains.

`Hill climbing' implies optimizing for something in
particular.  The accumulation and exercise of material or
physical power often have an associated cost - typically our
relationship with ourselves or others.  People whose `hill
climbing' heuristic is optimizing for quality of human
relationship may exhibit very different behavior from those
optimizing for material or physical power.

Although the tendency to identify goals and work towards
them may be intrinsically human, the specific goals are
often socially constructed.  I'm reminded of certain
cultures which confer social status (and resulting
influence, which qualifies as power even in our society) on
those who give away their material goods.

I heartily recommend reading "The Gift - Imagination and the
Erotic Life of Property" by Lewis Hyde for an alternative
view of material wealth and power.  (The book's discussion
of the taboo of selling human organs also helped me
understand the tradition of sanctity of the body and respect
for its sovereignty, which are very relevant to abortion
rights discussions.)


> Analysis of social constructions is useful for discovering arbitrary
> and (hopefully mutable) features of the technology of power.  We might
> want to look at why men so often have access to power over women;  we might
> look at how womens bodies are made into tools for men.

This is discussed in the chapter "A Female Property".


> But again, there is no need to dwell on why men, or any
> other group, are motivated to pursue some kind of personal power;  that's life!

Are you using "power" to mean the same as "personal power"?
If you define personal power as controlling your own destiny
and using your skills to meet your basic needs, I might
agree that strengthening one's power is more intrinsic than
socially constructed.

However, if you're using "personal power" to mean the power
to control other people, I would disagree with your
assertion that "that's life".  In fact, I might go so far as
to say that that's death.

	- Ronnie

falcao@metaphor.com



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