Quote Originally Posted by Bertrand View Post
this assumes power is more important than ethics... which is to say being powerless is not the worst thing in the world. its not a proof that making oneself powerless is self evidently the wrong choice. obviously if one takes off all limits one could devise all sorts of schemes to get one's way. the question is such an approach in anyone's ultimate best interest and the answer is likely no. taking absolute responsibility for oneself sounds good, but it directly relates to the nobility of one's aims. lots of people stop at nothing to achieve what they want but what they want is bad. if they instead chose to be "powerless" in the matter, it would be a step up. its kind of anti social to simply choose power for its own sake, even though it invokes "responsibility" its actually responsibility toward no one, the self, or a limited tribe. its illusory responsibility because it frames responsibility itself in terms of a narrow range of people who deserve consideration. once ethics encompasses a broad enough group power has to give way, so you can't have perfect responsibility and perfect power. nested in this notion of "responsibility" is an ethical sleight of hand that presupposes a narrow range of persons accountable to combined with being willing to stop at nothing is the perfect blend, when that is essentially just a restatement of me and mine > everyone else. is that really perfect responsibility? at the end of the day I can't respect someone who is all powerful and only answerable to a few, even if that authority is me, because that person is essentially anti social, and the truth is, if we want to be anti social achieving any goal is much easier, so they're not really as powerful as they seem either. if we don't refrain from any baseness suddenly most tasks become much easier, but that doesn't mean one is either empowered or responsible, they're just sort of clueless. these same people would invoke notions of power and responsibility and they're entirely lead around by the nose by unintended consequences from not acknowledging these other forces that control them. as if saying because they take "responsibility" it means nothing controls them, when that is nothing but pure psychological denial. it just makes them slightly comic as they run to and fro, saying there are no higher powers, all the while driven by them constantly
I haven't read everything you've written here but my idea of power begins with powerlessness which must remain, they are the same thing in my mind, what I mean is my idea of having power is not the traditional one of having power over external outcomes in life but only by being constantly in touch with the realization of powerlessness in the external can you simultaneously embrace your only real opportunity to excercise power, that is the power to choose thoughts, words and actions and nothing else.