Well, I said it had been a long week... -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 03:45:33 10/12/02 Sat
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer
Subject: Well, I said it had been a long week...
In reply to: mvd 's message, "First of all, I am not Adilbrand. ;)" on 18:18:45 10/11/02 Fri

And now - more rambling along similar but not the exact lines that MVD was musing upon...

"The question is, does power demand to be used?

I think that this is merely the other side of the coin of the question "Does power corrupt?"Therefore, I posit the assumption that power, being a tool, can be used for creation and destruction, and if it is used for one, it will most certainly be used, at some juncture, for the other."

Now, please understand where I am coming from on this - politically I am very Jeffersonian at this point in my life - meaning that I don't like to concentrate power with any one person or even a small group of people. This is because of my absolute belief that we, as humans, have a profound capacity to screw each other over and it is best to limit our ability to do so, even if this means that some of our other more "positive" goals will not be reached because the power will not be available to achieve them. Ironically, Jefferson became very anti-Jeffersonian when he became President - he expanded the Presidency and his own party was responsible for the passage of the infamous "Alien and Sedition Acts" that made it illegal to criticize the government and its officials - it was intended to be a tool for good - to promote the success of our fledgling government - but soon it was used to put political enemies in jail.

Pretty damn un-Jeffersonian. But, Jefferson was an interesting compilation of contradictions - the religious anti-religious philosopher, the freedom-professing slave-holder, the elitist democrat (not the party but the ideal)...

My point in the previously posted rambling was that, yes, it is in our nature to use the same tools for creation and for destruction - and it is the rarest of people, perhaps only the divine or the divinely inspired who can avoid the abuse of this power. Why is it that way? Because we are all like Jefferson in that we are all full of contradictions.

Power demands to be used only because of our short-sightedness - it is mighty hard for us to "let well enough alone" or "let sleeping dogs lie" or any other pithy little saying that I can think of - that's why we have pithy little sayings on this subject.

hmmm...this started out to be a short little comment about power and it ended up being a little essay on Jefferson. Meanderings and ramblings at 2:44 AM...

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Replies:

I agree -- mvd, 10:21:37 10/12/02 Sat
- Re: I agree -- Mt. Healthy Mountaineer, 08:24:32 10/14/02 Mon
  - I disagree -- BAD, 20:45:55 10/14/02 Mon