POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • Completed pages
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • Absolute power
      • B >
        • Benefits of understanding power
        • Binary thinking
        • Buddhism
      • C >
        • Circumstances and Power
        • Choice
        • Choosing meanings
        • Corrupted by power
      • D >
        • Discovering your power
      • E >
        • Empowerment
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
      • G >
        • Gender and power
      • H >
        • Having power and using power
        • How everybody is powerful
        • How everybody is powerless
      • I >
        • Improving mental abilities
        • In control
        • Inequality
        • Influencing each other
        • Intentionality and power
      • L >
        • Language has power over us
        • Limited resources
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
      • M >
        • Macropower: Collective Power
        • Main theories of power
        • "May" power
        • Meanings of power that are not directly related to social power
        • Meanings
        • Micropower: Individual power
        • Mindfulness
        • Media and Digital Literacy as Forms of Individual Power
        • Mental power
        • (Mis)understanding of power in media texts
        • Money and Power
        • My synesthetic perception of "power"
      • P >
        • Power and knowledge
        • Power as ability
        • Power as a chess game
        • Power as influence
        • Power vs. powerlessness
        • "Power" in language
        • Physical power
        • Power is not a thing
        • Power of speech
        • Power on/off
        • Privilege
      • R >
        • Responsibility, blame and power
      • S >
        • Self-awareness and power
        • Snapshot power
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • U >
        • Using power is rewarding
      • V >
        • Vector power
      • W >
        • What is power?
        • Willpower
  • Author
    • My creative process

Responsibility, Blame and Power

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!
When we blame, the unspoken assumption is that somebody has power but is not using it. We need to understand the difference between having and using power.

Our actions are always a result of a combination of micropower and macropower, which means that there is a combination of power and powerlessness.

How can we hold anybody accountable for their actions if there is a degree of powerlessness? How can be blame? How can we punish? This should connect to a discussion about prisons. Literature on why, when prisons function as punishment, they are ineffective (and even harmful). The idea of consequences - what we try to apply with our children. Actions should have consequences so that we learn from them and grow. But they should not lead to punishment.

understanding how power works leads to a different mindset: instead of thinking prof other people as trying to trick you, hurt you, blaming them for the problems you experience, you can think about all of you together being caught in the same systems that is beyond control or even full understanding of any specific individuals
empathy and curiosity

  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • Completed pages
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • Absolute power
      • B >
        • Benefits of understanding power
        • Binary thinking
        • Buddhism
      • C >
        • Circumstances and Power
        • Choice
        • Choosing meanings
        • Corrupted by power
      • D >
        • Discovering your power
      • E >
        • Empowerment
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
      • G >
        • Gender and power
      • H >
        • Having power and using power
        • How everybody is powerful
        • How everybody is powerless
      • I >
        • Improving mental abilities
        • In control
        • Inequality
        • Influencing each other
        • Intentionality and power
      • L >
        • Language has power over us
        • Limited resources
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
      • M >
        • Macropower: Collective Power
        • Main theories of power
        • "May" power
        • Meanings of power that are not directly related to social power
        • Meanings
        • Micropower: Individual power
        • Mindfulness
        • Media and Digital Literacy as Forms of Individual Power
        • Mental power
        • (Mis)understanding of power in media texts
        • Money and Power
        • My synesthetic perception of "power"
      • P >
        • Power and knowledge
        • Power as ability
        • Power as a chess game
        • Power as influence
        • Power vs. powerlessness
        • "Power" in language
        • Physical power
        • Power is not a thing
        • Power of speech
        • Power on/off
        • Privilege
      • R >
        • Responsibility, blame and power
      • S >
        • Self-awareness and power
        • Snapshot power
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • U >
        • Using power is rewarding
      • V >
        • Vector power
      • W >
        • What is power?
        • Willpower
  • Author
    • My creative process