Every day of your life, you move through systems of power that other people made. Do you sense them? Do you understand power? Do you realize why it matters? Power is something we are often uncomfortable talking about. That's especially true in civic life, how we live together in community. In a democracy, power is supposed to reside with the people, period. Any further talk about power and who really has it seems a little dirty, maybe even evil. But power is no more inherently good or evil than fire or physics. It just is. It governs how any form of government works. It determines who gets to determine the rules of the game. So learning how power operates is key to being effective, being taken seriously, and not being taken advantage of. In this lesson, we'll look at where power comes from, how it's exercised and what you can do to become more powerful in public life. Let's start with a basic definition. Power is the ability to make others do what you would have them do. Of course, this plays out in all arenas of life, from family to the workplace to our relationships. Our focus is on the civic arena, where power means getting a community to make the choices and to take the actions that you want. There are six main sources of civic power. First, there's physical force and a capacity for violence. Control of the means of force, whether in the police or a militia, is power at its most primal. A second core source of power is wealth. Money creates the ability to buy results and to buy almost any other kind of power. The third form of power is state action, government. This is the use of law and bureaucracy to compel people to do or not do certain things. In a democracy, for example, we the people, theoretically, give government its power through elections. In a dictatorship, state power emerges from the threat of force, not the consent of the governed. The fourth type of power is social norms or what other people think is okay. Norms don't have the centralized machinery of government. They operate in a softer way, peer to peer. They can certainly make people change behavior and even change laws. Think about how norms around marriage equality today are evolving. The fifth form of power is ideas. An idea, individual liberties, say, or racial equality, can generate boundless amounts of power if it motivates enough people to change their thinking and actions. And so the sixth source of power is numbers, lots of humans. A vocal mass of people creates power by expressing collective intensity of interest and by asserting legitimacy. Think of the Arab Spring or the rise of the Tea Party. Crowds count. These are the six main sources of power, what power is. So now, let's think about how power operates. There are three laws of power worth examining. Law number one: power is never static. It's always either accumulating or decaying in a civic arena. So if you aren't taking action, you're being acted upon. Law number two: power is like water. It flows like a current through everyday life. Politics is the work of harnessing that flow in a direction you prefer. Policymaking is an effort to freeze and perpetuate a particular flow of power. Policy is power frozen. Law number three: power compounds. Power begets more power, and so does powerlessness. The only thing that keeps law number three from leading to a situation where only one person has all the power is how we apply laws one and two. What rules do we set up so that a few people don't accumulate too much power, and so that they can't enshrine their privilege in policy? That's the question of democracy, and you can see each of these laws at work in any news story. Low wage workers organize to get higher pay. Oil companies push to get a big pipeline approved. Gay and lesbian couples seek the legal right to marry. Urban parents demand school vouchers. You may support these efforts or not. Whether you get what you want depends on how adept you are with power, which brings us finally to what you can do to become more powerful in public life. Here, it's useful to think in terms of literacy. Your challenge is to learn how to read power and write power. To read power means to pay attention to as many texts of power as you can. I don't mean books only. I mean seeing society as a set of texts. Don't like how things are in your campus or city or country? Map out who has what kind of power, arrayed in what systems. Understand why it turned out this way, who's made it so, and who wants to keep it so. Study the strategies others in such situations used: frontal attack or indirection, coalitions or charismatic authority. Read so you may write. To write power requires first that you believe you have the right to write, to be an author of change. You do. As with any kind of writing, you learn to express yourself, speak up in a voice that's authentic. Organize your ideas, then organize other people. Practice consensus building. Practice conflict. As with writing, it's all about practice. Every day you have a chance to practice, in your neighborhood and beyond. Set objectives, then bigger ones. Watch the patterns, see what works. Adapt, repeat. This is citizenship. In this short lesson, we've explored where civic power comes from, how it works and what you can do to exercise it. One big question remaining is the "why" of power. Do you want power to benefit everyone or only you? Are your purposes pro-social or anti-social? This question isn't about strategy. It's about character, and that's another set of lessons. But remember this: Power plus character equals a great citizen, and you have the power to be one.
Svakog dana svog života, krećete se kroz sisteme moći koje su drugi ljudi stvorili. Da li ih osećate? Da li razumete moć? Da li shvatate zbog čega je bitna? Moć je tema o kojoj se ne osećamo lagodno da pričamo. To je posebno tačno u građanskom životu, kako živimo zajedno u zajednicama. U demokratiji, moć treba da obitava sa ljudima i tačka. Bilo kakva dalja rasprava o moći i ko je zaista poseduje deluje pomalo prljavo, možda čak zlobno. Ali moć nije inheretno više dobra ili loša nego vatra ili fizika. Ona jednostavno jeste. Ona određuje kako bilo koji oblik vlade funkcioniše. Određuje ko diktira pravila igre. Tako da je učenje kako moć funkcioniše ključ da postanemo efikasni, da nas shvataju ozbiljno i da nas ne iskorišćavaju. U ovoj lekciji, pogledaćemo odakle dolazi moć, kako se izvodi i šta možemo uraditi kako bismo postali moćniji u javnom životu. Počnimo sa osnovnom definicijom. Moć je sposobnost da načinimo druge da urade ono što želimo. Naravno, ovo se može odnositi na sve aspekte života, od porodice preko posla do veza. Naš akcenat je na građanskom aspektu gde moč znači teranje zajednice da pravi izbore i da dela onako kako mi želimo. Postoji šest glavnih izvora građanske moći. Prvo, tu je fizička sila i sposobnost za nasilje. Kontrola sredstava sile, bilo političke ili vojne, je moć u samoj osnovi. Drugi izvor moći je bogatstvo. Novac stvara šansu za kupovinu rezultata i bilo koje druge vrste moći. Treći oblik moći je državno dejstvo, vlada. To je upotreba zakona i birokratije kako bi se prisilili ljudi da urade ili ne urade određene stvari. U demokratiji, na primer, mi ljudi, teorijski, dajemo vladi moć putem izbora. U diktaturi, državna moć se pojavljuje usled pretnji nasiljem, ne uz saglasnost ljudi. Četvrti tip moći su socijalne norme, ili ono što drugi smatraju ispravnim. Norme nemaju centralizovanu mašineriju rukovodstva. One operiraju na blaži način, od čoveka do čoveka. One svakako mogu naterati ljude da promene ponašanja, pa čak i zakone. Razmislite kako se danas razvijaju norme u vezi sa jednakošću braka. Peta forma moći su ideje. Ideja, pojedinačne slobode, recimo, ili rasna ravnopravnost, može proizvesti neograničene količine moći ako motiviše dovoljan broj ljudi da promene svoje razmišljanje i dela. I tako su šesti izvor moći brojevi, mnoštvo ljudi. Bučna masa ljudi stvara moć izražavajući kolektivni intenzitet interesa i tvrdeći legitimnost. Setite se arapskog proleća ili bostonske čajanke. Gomile se računaju. To su šest glavnih izvora moći, ono što čini moć. Hajde sada da vidimo kako moć funkcioniše. Postoje tri pravila moći koje vredi proučiti. Pravilo broj jedan: moć nikada nije statična. Uvek je ili akumulativna ili opadajuća u građanskoj sferi. Tako da ako vi ne diktirate akciju, akcija se vrši nad vama. Pravilo broj dva: moć je kao voda. Teče kao struja kroz svakodnevni život. Politika je ovladavanje tim tokom u pravcu koji vam odgovara, Vođenje politike je pokušaj da se zamrzne i ovekoveči određeni tok moći. Politika je zamrznuta moć. Pravilo broj tri: moć se taloži. Moć stvara još moći, a isto tako i nemoć. Jedina stvar koja sprečava pravilo tri da dovede do situacije u kojoj jedna osoba ima svu moć je način primene pravila jedan i dva. Koja pravila postavljamo kako nekolicina ljudi ne bi akumulirala previše moći, i da ne konzervira svoje privilegije u politici? To je pitanje demokratije, i svako od ovih pravila možete videti na delu u bilo kojoj priči u vestima. Radnici sa niskim primanjima se organizuju kako bi dobili veće plate. Naftne kompanije vrše pritisak kako bi im odobrili veliki cevovod. Istopolni parovi traže zakonsko pravo da se venčavaju. Urbani roditelji zahtevaju školske vaučere. Možete podržavati ove pokrete ili ne. Da li ćete dobiti ono što želite ili ne zavisi od toga koliko ste vešti sa moći, što nas dovodi do toga šta možete uraditi da biste postali moćniji u javnom životu. Ovde je korisno misliti o pismenosti. Vaš izazov je da naučite da čitate i da pišete moć. Čitati moć znači obratiti pažnju na što više tekstova o moći. Ne mislim samo na knjige. Mislim na viđenje društva kao skup tekstova. Ne dopada vam se stanje stvari na kampusu, u vašem gradu ili državi? Napravite plan toga ko ima kakvu moć postrojenu u kojim sistemima. Razumite zbog čega je to tako ispalo, ko je to tako napravio, i zbog čega želi da i dalje bude tako. Proučite strategije koje su drugi koristili u takvim situacijama: frontalni napad ili zaobilazak, koalicije ili harizmatični autoritet. Čitajte kako biste mogli da pišete. Da biste pisali moć, morate prvo verovati da imate pravo da pišete, da budete autor promena. Imate. Kao i kod bilo koje druge vrste pisanja, naučite da se izražavate, da pričate glasom koji je autentičan. Organizujte svoje ideje, a onda organizujte ljude. Vežbajte izgradnju konsenzusa. Vežbajte konflikt. Kao i kod pisanja, sve je u vežbi. Svakog dana imate šansu da vežbate, u svom komšiluku i šire. Postavite ciljeve, a onda još veće. Pratite obrasce, vidite šta funkcioniše. Adaptirajte, ponovite. To znači biti građanin. U ovoj kratkoj lekciji, istražili smo odakle dolazi građanska moć, kako funkcioniše i šta možete učiniti da biste je praktikovali. Jedno veliko pitanje koje preostaje je "zašto"? Da li želite moć kako biste vi imali koristi, ili kako bi svi imali koristi? Da li je vaša svrha prosocijalna ili antisocijalna? Ovo pitanje se ne odnosi na strategiju. Odnosi se na karakter, a to je tema za novu lekciju. Ali upamtitie ovo: Moć plus karakter jednako je veliki građanin, i vi imate moć da budete baš to.