power

Ok, for better or for worse, this is not going to be neatly argumentative.

We have power relations everywhere.

I used to think that the human nature is to deny nature itself, to be unnatural, to challenge the status quo of the mother nature and assert artificiality, or simply, art. I used to think that to be human was to do art. Now, I see it differently. To be human is to strive for power, and the denial of nature bit is just a corollary of the deeper, more general, and more disturbing truth that power lies in our nature.

There are power relations in our daily lives, in our relationships, in our families, in our workplaces, in our games… The basic components of a power relation are its two sides and the context of power exersion: the superordinate and the subordinate, and the constraints or the attributes that are affected in the relation between the superordinate and the subordinate. The context is everchanging. With that, the two sides also switch characters all the time. However, one thing remains constant: Our understanding of the world is built upon power relations of different kinds and sizes. Power is wired into our brains. It is intrinsically in every relation we build. It is even embedded in language, the very thing that makes us special among our evolutionary peers and rivals.

Every systematic language¹—is there a non-systematic language?—has words that function as nouns and verbs. Nouns are things and concepts. Verbs can be thought of as actions, movements, beings, state changes, etc. and a verb inherently has affectors and affectees—let’s just agree that it is a word—associated with its semantic meaning. When a subject (a noun) performs an action (a verb) over an object (a noun), there is an intrinsic power exertion carried out by the subject onto the object. So, the object becomes a subordinate in that sentential context. In the most basic form, something does something to/at/on/in/with something, exerting some form of control over it. Exertion of control is forceful, it is the embodiment of power. The very thing that allows us to think molds power everywhere, it is impossible to escape power relations.