Power

Sixteen-year-old me encountered a life lesson one day during driver’s education class.  It had snowed after we had gotten to school, a great deal.  Donna, my driving partner, asked our teacher, Mr. Badida if we were venturing out in all of this snow, and Mr. B seemed surprised by the question, “Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we?”  It is a statement of the obvious to mention that Mr. Badida is totally fearless.  I do remember the lesson vividly; and honestly still apply it- I did this morning in fact.

Maintain momentum uphill (use the accelerator) or you will spin.  Anticipate stopping and do so without momentum or you will slide into the intersection.  Steering becomes a series of minor course corrections, as a rapid change of direction on the wheel will cause one to lose control.  When it was time for me to teach my own children how to do this, I summarized: The key to driving in the snow is the smooth application of power.

I think I have stated that I am a former military man with some experience and will tell you that this philosophy has application in leading soldiers.  True enough that the soldier with the highest rank has a great deal of power over his subordinates, approaching the ultimate, life and death power; but the best Commanders prefer to lead, and not direct by means of this authority.

Soldiers must know the specified end state and be consistently and steadily driven to it without overwhelming them.  The Commander must also be circumspect when the effort must stop, reset, and try again, treating failures as learning experiences, and nothing more than momentary setbacks- do not let failures have momentum. Rapid or violent changes of direction fracture cohesion.  Smooth application of power.  Simple.

Maybe made simpler if we understand if we start with the word “power”.  Webster tells us power is the “ability to act or produce an effect”. Anticipating that this “effect” is something that we want to happen- as in not losing control of the car or disrupting cohesion in a military unit. We can also call these “Interests”.

To obtain these interests, my post grad education tells me that power can be divided into four separate toolboxes, known under the acronym “DIME”.  That is, Diplomatic, Informational, Military, and Economic elements of power.  These elements of power can be used in the context of major international relations or even one on one interaction.

From the least intense and obtrusive to the most, we first have informational element power which is the articulation of interests to gain consensus.  It generates the effect when the other party agrees to support your interest because you have convinced them, and they have seen the light.

The next level is diplomatic (political) power, which is all about negotiation and compromise.  This exists when the parties are in some level of conflict and will try to agree that both will get some- but not all- of what they each want. Neither party leaves with possession of the intended effect to the 100^th percentile, but close, or close enough.

The next level of intensity is Economic power, in that to get my interest I am willing to compensate you in some way, in exchange for your compliance.  Or I am willing to sanction, which is taking something away from you that you need, have, or were promised.

The last in terms of intensity and exercised at the most expense to the other three, is the military, and the military element of power is simply, “You are going to do this because I am stronger than you.”

An example is that a child does not wish to clean their room, and the effect the parent wishes to generate is a cleaned room.  So the parent will sit the child down, explain to the child that a clean room is the right and proper thing for reasons of organization, sanitation, safety, responsibility, etc.  The child does not clean his room.  The parent then says “Child, if you clean your room, we’ll go to Chuckie Cheese”- which has one effect that each of them wish, and one effect that each do not wish.  The child does not clean his room. The parent says “Child, you will not be receiving your allowance until that room is clean.” The child does not clean his room.  The final element of power left to consider is the child now sits on a hard chair with a sore bottom.

Understanding the power elements and normal sequencing, I have some observations that I would like to share.

1. Leadership and authority/power are two greatly different capabilities. We do expect military commanders to be functional in both, but those within the Political strata; such a thought may not be realistic. “Authority” and “Leadership” are not the same thing.
2. Informational element of power is the only element of power that does not have to be legitimate. Propaganda, diluted narrative, “the social media shout down”, or an outright lie still move people to action/ generate effect.
3. The Informational element of power is now stronger than the Diplomatic element of power, for the reasons discussed above.  It is because there is little or no incentive to compromise or seek meaningful political discourse between the Republicans and Democrats.
4. The diplomatic element of power is diffused by a confederation of interests, and by constituents which are normally only committed to one or very few grass roots issues, but belong to a platform that harbor dozens. That is to say, all of the possible American interests must be boiled down into only two platforms and that could lead to strange bedfellows (i.e. Animal rights and human reproductive rights groups within the same platform). The end state of this is the weakening of platform, in terms of internal competition- with no one getting what they want.
5. When informational and Economic elements of power combine to form a Political element to the 51% of the population in favor mark; anything and everything is politically possible.
6. The Republicans are absolutely awful at exercising properly the Informational element of power. Interested generally in facts, and not how people feel about these facts, costs this platform greatly.
7. The Republicans use the political elements of power to drive economics; while the Democrats use economic elements of power to drive politics.
8. The Democrats are absolutely awful at exercising the military aspect of power, because they do not understand the concept of proportionality, missing the mark high or low. For example, I am told that there are 24,000 troops in DC this minute- while in other places during the summer the Guard was not deployed, under deployed, or recalled when major cities were being looted and burned.
9. When the military element of power is used without a collective and legitimate conscious/ morality, (i.e. The Golden Rule), such force is a rouge effort that will border on criminality.
10. When the Informational element of power skips diplomacy and economics and goes straight to military (Violence), this is called terrorism.
11. The term “Terrorism” cannot be applied to what happened on 6 Jan. The term itself has been misapplied lately and is contemporarily misunderstood as a sort of supercharged violent act. It is more subtle and sinister than that, as you- the viewer, are the intended target, and not the poor fellow that the violence is directed against. For example, biblical crucifixions were always done in public, and not to punish the fellow nailed up there, but to make sure that crowd got the message.  The violence on 6 Jan was transactional and did not display any inclination towards influencing a third party. True terrorism is the most striking example of how the power continuum can be short-circuited and bastardized.

Some elements of power are more ably exercised by one platform/ party than the other, and this may be simply a matter of personality.  I think that this is one of the real and main reasons that the division has been so great, as one side looks to the other and just cannot figure them out.  Respect that each are differently abled, and that each has their uses- that may be the glue that puts us all together. Likely in this day and age, that ship has sailed.

That is the shame of this all, really.  As discussed, the two main groups exercising leverage against one another are only united based upon their dislike of the other.  This is a sobering thought, that should make us all a bit nervous.

Hold the High Ground!