Originially published January 2008 at Key64.net.

“What about empowerment through vulnerability?” A young male stood up in front of a room full of people and asked me this a few months ago. He did so without a chuckle, with no shame or uncertainty in his voice. A few of his peers nodded and looked to me for an answer, visibly convinced that he’d asked a valid, challenging question. Later, he expressed disappointment because I never responded to his question directly. In a sane world, no one should ever have to respond to this question, making an exception for the parents of very young children who are legitimately confused about the meanings of words.

The question itself, taken literally, makes absolutely no sense. Any dictionary will explain why.

In a certain context, 'empowerment through vulnerability' might be a provocative turn of phrase. But the problem here was that this clever combination of conceptual opposites had escaped any reality-based context and tripped these end users into some perverse, hallucinatory fantasy wherein 'strength,' 'weakness,' 'power' and 'œvulnerability' existed only as nebulous abstractions subject entirely to semantic presentation.

Real power doesn't disappear like some storybook monster who will go away if you refuse to believe in him. Real power exists with or without your belief or permission. Real power is grounded in physical reality and is not subject to whims of semantics or clever turns of phrase.

If you refuse to struggle to attain real power, others will do so with or without your permission. If you 'opt out,' you simply forfeit any power you might have otherwise attained. Real empowerment is the attainment of real power. The American Heritage Dictionary defines power as I do. Power is:

"Strength or force exerted or capable of being exerted; might. The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority.A person, group, or nation having great influence or control over others."

The other entries are variations on the same theme, and have nothing to do with how powerful one feels.

However, there’s nothing to say you have to participate in every contest or spend your life tirelessly pursuing power for power’s sake alone. People who pathologically compete for power lack filter and focus and usually end up in prison or dead. You can and should be selective about who you compete with and what you compete for, especially when you can survive comfortably by barely competing at all. (Though it’s worth keeping in mind that even bums compete or negotiate for resources and territory at some level, and frequently find themselves the targets of violence.) Your ability to “opt out” of life’s real power struggle and retain some minimum level of personal sovereignty relies entirely on either the indifference or the benevolence of those who wield real power. Your personal sovereignty, such as it is, and the luxury of being able to 'opt out,' both rely on the protection of those who wield real power.

And it is this protection from the harsher realities of power that allows this epidemic confusion about the nature of power to fester. Without this protection, delusions of 'empowerment' would be corrected by the pimp slap of cold, hard reality. But this protection is simply there, and when the infrastructure enabling this protection is functioning reasonably well, it is easy to forget it is there at all, especially when it protects you from dangers you’ve never experienced at close range.

In this sense, citizens of wealthy modern industrialized nations are a lot like captive sea lions in an aquarium. If you learn a few cool tricks or just make a lot of noise, people will throw more herring at you.

Arf! Arf! Arf!

But you’re probably going to be fed just for hanging around. You don’t have to really hunt or even hustle, per se. The food is already dead, and it’s basically there for the taking. If you do hunt it is more because you want to, because it entertains you, than because you have to.

(Recall every slacker you’ve ever worked with who punched a clock and collected a paycheck, coasting through life exerting as little effort as possible.)

At the aquarium, there are also people who care for you when you are sick, whether they like you or not. That said, as a sea lion in captivity you are far more likely to die of old age, of disease, or in some accident than you are from any sort of predation or violent competition for resources. If you are somehow murdered or you are killed in combat, it will probably be reported on television because it will be so unusual and unexpected that it will be considered 'newsworthy.' You feel relatively safe.

If sea lions were sentient beings like you and I, if they were removed from the wild and placed in an aquarium where they would be fed, cared for and protected from predators including each other, they might think they were in heaven. (They might also be as bored as the average cubicle zombie.) But they would probably think it was pretty sweet that they would never be thrashed around and eaten alive by a giant shark, which seems as though it would really, really suck.

However, sea lions born in captivity would never have had to swim for their lives. Any fear of sharks they’d have would be instinctual and abstract, not deadly serious. They would have no knowledge of lean times, of hunger. They would not live with the knowledge that a simple injury could make them lag enough to end up in the jaws of that toothsome shark. The sea lions born in captivity would simply expect to be protected. They would expect food to be there. They would expect to be cared for. They might even begin to think of these things as their “rights.” They might even get a bit of an attitude about those 'rights,' or become a little melodramatic.

"Throw me some herring, bitch!"

"It’s 3:00 and I’m starving! How dare you deprive me of herring!?"

As sea lions born and raised in captivity, they’d have no real reason to think about what an aquarium is, or what complex infrastructures facilitated the operations of said aquarium. They would never have to consider exactly why people fed them, why they were kept safe, why they were so well cared for. Their insulated, protected little world would be all they’d ever known. They would be free to entertain any absurd little scenario that might give them pleasure, because it really wouldn’t matter anyway. If they felt “empowered” by their status as popular aquarium attractions, that would be cute, but in reality the aquarium staff and the organization funding the aquarium would retain all of the power that actually mattered. If the aquarium staff decided to shoot and eat the sea lions, they would be, well, shooting swimming mammals in something like a barrel. It would be exceedingly easy for the human staff to do so, though they’d likely face reprimands from people who wielded power over them. Those reprimands, however, would not be the doing of the sea lions themselves.

Likewise, if the organization that funded the aquarium decided to close it down, the sea lions could well be shipped out to the open ocean--and the sharks. That would be one hell of a shock to those 'empowered' little sea lions, wouldn’t it?

The sea lion bit is an imperfect illustration--in the best possible way. Sea lions can never become aquarium staff, and they can never wield any power that matters, though they probably have some sort of pecking order within their little group of sea lions. Sea lions are smart animals, but they are not humans.
Humans are humans. They are, more or less, at the top of the food chain. They can compete with each other and consciously decide whether they want to be passive but well fed-denizens of the aquarium, or whether they want to wield power over those fat, entertaining little mammals. Not everyone can be on the aquarium staff, and not everyone wants to be on the aquarium staff. It is not such a bad deal to be able to give up a little control for the freedom to amuse yourself with the other humans, and still basically get fed every day. But see the situation for what it is. Respect real power like you would respect an open flame or high voltage.

Do not embarrass yourself by claiming that you are somehow 'empowered' by being utterly at the mercy of those who are more powerful than you. Do not embarrass yourself by celebrating your low status, your ineptitude, your weakness, your inability to compete with those who have power. If you had absolutely no choice with respect to your position in the hierarchy, which is less common than people tend to admit, a false sense of 'empowerment' will simply cloud your perception and ensure your continued failure. If you made conscious choices which determined your place in the pack, take responsibility for those choices and either accept them or re-evaluate them and re-direct your course accordingly.
'Empowerment' is a pathetic salve for low self-esteem--a comforting, ego-inflating illusion dreamed up by those who have little or no power but who covet a sense of vital importance. The illusion of 'empowerment' is prized by the powerless and humored by those who wield real power. The illusion of 'œempowerment' is a luxury-like cable television, air conditioning, imported gourmet food, chemical anti-depressants, plastic surgery, the 'civil rights' lawsuit or anything else which is made possible only by the extreme wealth and military might of modern industrialized nations.

There is no power in vulnerability. To claim there is simply makes you ridiculous. Reveling in weakness only weakens you further. Making yourself the enemy of strength does not make you any stronger. It simply means you’ve given up completely. The worship of weakness in the guise of strength is a sure sign of a decadent, suicidal society.

Have some self-respect. Have some honor. If you have no power, at least have some shame. Have some appreciation for what power is and the luxuries it affords you. Have the decency to recognize strength for what it is, and acknowledge its real place in the scheme of things.

Above all, stop kidding yourself.
Personally speaking, I have little or no real power, and I am not actively seeking real power, but I strive to be worthy of power.
At the very least, you could try to be worthy of your bucket of herring.

Arf! Arf! Arf!

God save The Man.

Rev. Jack Malebranche

December 15, 2007