PAGE IN PROGRESS What you see here is a page of my hypertext book POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power. Initially empty, this page will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience!
Power is often seen as something that one either has or lacks. As a result, the world can be divided into the powerless and the powerful ones.
power as a binary: either you have it or not
This is an example of binary thinking, which is typical for human brain that has evolved to create order out of chaos. You can imagine our distant ancestors looking at a certain forest a thinking: "Is it dangerous or is it safe? Will a tiger eat meat if I go in there?" In this situation, it is more useful to see options and either/or. If there is even a slightest chance of being eaten, this place us unsafe.
it is hard to escape binary thinking even if we want to, not the least because binaries are embedded into language [language has power over us]
even if we want to show that binary is limiting, we still have to refer to the binary in most instances. We can say that things are not black or white, they are gray; but how can we say that things are not good or bad, smart or stupid, etc. in one word?
My own analysis of power presented on this website heavily relies on binary thinking. Power = micropower + macropower Micropower = abilities + influences Abilities = physical + mental