The LUST For POWER

THE ABUSE OF POWER

Brent Anderson

Email pba@xmission.com Website www.xmission.com/~pba

Power. Is it either the ultimate good or evil? This question is complexly multifaceted, and requires considerable thought. Such will lead us to conclude that there are probably as many ways as there are men and women to abuse power, and there are just as many ways to use power for good. Therefore, there is no simple yes or no, but rather a continuum of possible answers. The definitions of power are numerous and are highly dependant on each individual’s viewpoint. Power can be defined as energy such as electricity, which is mostly good. Or it can be defined as the authority to enslave men and women, which is pure evil. Since the variations are incomprehensibly huge, it is wise to limit our inquiry to, the second of these two. By so doing, we may be able to more easily understand mans favorite social game, the accumulation of power. It is unfortunate that the consequences of this game are often life-long; leaving emotional scars on young children and adults that may never heal. When the stakes of the game become political power, those who lose may well lose their lives at the winner’s whim.

Few fail to recognize that a tyrant’s use of power to force others to obey his or her will is evil. In the present, it is not hard to identify this sort of behavior in many backward nations, prominently including those dominated by Islam. Muslim men and the clerics who lead them are quite smug about enslaving, or even killing women (chattel) and those they classify as “infidels” who don’t obey by converting. The surprising thing about their society is that they are quite open about their enslavement of people, making no apologies for their actions even though the evil is quite obvious to those of free world. They, however, don’t hold exclusive rights to such abuse. Do many Americans ever give thought to the fact that within our own country that there is a war of ideas involving freedom versus slavery? Our country is evenly split between those who advocate slavery and those who do not. The two prominent political parties are good examples of this ethical divide. The basic tenants of the Democratic Party are that the people don’t know what is good for them, and consequently they need a strong Democrat central government to tell them what to do. The Republican Party advocates letting the people govern themselves by limiting the interference of central government. Granted it is not as black and white as this example might appear, since there are some within each political party that believe differently, but the generalization holds for the majority of each political party. Those who advocate removing freedom always view their efforts as “what is good for the common people”. There is no doubt in their minds that they, the elite “liberal arts educated” (the media from Hollywood to Madison Avenue), are the ones who know what is best for said common people. Some of them sincerely believe that their plan for limiting freedom is best for the “majority” (read what is best for the Democrat leaders). They point out with great sincerity that they want only what is good for the “people”. Those on the other side of this issue believe that if the common people are given the freedom of choice, that the “majority” will choose to conform to rules of conduct that allow all men to grow and prosper. With this thought in mind, it should be strongly stated that it is evil for a benevolent dictator to force men to do his bidding (against their will) even if he is forcing behaviors that are patently good.

The battle for freedom of choice has raged unabated from before time. Our Father tells us that our spiritual generation of contemporaries argued about the efficacy of His educational plan, which allowed freedom of choice (The downside to His plan was that some of our group would inevitably be lost to permanent spiritual death.), or a plan put forward by one of our Brothers that would force all to live as commanded by God, thus assuring that none of us would be lost to permanent spiritual death. As with all such debates, some felt that the chance of being lost was too great, and voted for the plan of enslavement to God’s will. They sincerely reasoned that being a slave to God would be good, since he wanted only what is good for his children. However, the majority of us felt that the exercise of freedom of choice was the only way for our generation to grow (progress) and become more like our Parents (God). After the final vote, some of those on the losing side opted out of the opportunity to come to this Earth rather than risk the possibility of becoming spiritually lost. This was/is their right since our Father will not ever force anyone to follow his plan for our education. This decision on their part stopped their progress, and so they were/are described as damned (as in damming a stream of water). The result is that they are now playing the role of tempters for we who are undergoing this difficult test of our decision-making skills. They play this role avidly, because they would like to prove to our Parents that their plan was correct after all.

Those of us who are parents of children are challenged to walk a tightrope. We are constantly torn between allowing our children the right to exercise their free will or to restrain them from walking into trouble that could or would lead them to destruction. In this situation, the parent must constantly adjust the amount of restraint of a child to compensate for growing maturity. There is little doubt that parents are absolute dictators with regard to newborn children, and this is generally a good thing since the child has little physical or mental ability to protect itself. When the child has grown to the point of independence, then it is the duty and obligation of the parents to release him or her to his or her own recognizance. This is the same process that we, the spiritual Children, of our Heavenly Parents are experiencing here on the Earth. Our Spiritual Parents have released us from their direct presence and command, giving us freedom of choice to follow their rules or not, as we please. None of us doubts that God could force us to His will, and surely it must be tempting for our Parents when they witness how some of us persist in committing terrible evils against our own Brothers and Sisters. The importance of freedom of choice is attested to by the fact that our Father does not interfere with our decision making, despite the anguish He must feel every moment of our banishment to this place of (hopefully) temporary spiritual death.

Genetically, the natural man or woman will seek to gain power over others. This is a part of the natural man’s survival instinct, that which drives all living creatures to dominate others, if possible. In our society, this instinctual drive is observable at all stages of life. The behavior is omnipresent in all human social interactions. Starting with our first social interactions as children, we fight little skirmishes for dominance over contemporaries with the goal of establishing a social pecking order. All of us would like to be king of the human social hill, and be free of the punishments meted out to underlings. The winner (there can only be one) in the grim game of social dominance can get away with almost anything within the bounds of overall group rules of conduct. There are similarities in how this game is played by humans and any of the social great Apes (Chimpanzees, Baboons, etc). With respect to Baboons, the winner of the social game becomes the dominant who then enlists the aid of several physically strong allied cronies who are used to enforce the leaders will on all others. After winning the coveted position, the leader is then free of most of the fighting needed to maintain his position. He then, at his leisure, can pursue more mundane issues such as amassing the best food or mates for procreation. This social gamesmanship is totally serious, and the leader of any group will do almost anything to make sure he is not dethroned, including the murder of family members.

Perhaps now we may understand more fully why the killing of outsiders (war) is such a prevalent behavior in the great ape family. This social behavior is also a part of man’s game-playing repertoire. War is the ultimate expression of the struggle for social dominance in man, and it is nothing more than our survival instincts escalation to the extreme (yes it is natural). The goal of war is to destroy most of the men of the opposing side, and to enslave the rest of the opposition’s population (especially women). Such slavery is nothing more than the removal of freedom of choice from the defeated populace, forcing them to become the lowest of all in the new social pecking order. This is a natural behavior for man, but just as obviously it should not be a natural behavior for the Sons and Daughters of our Heavenly Parents. We, after all, voted for freedom of choice in this life as a test of our spiritual maturity.

Considering the various world governments (leaders), it becomes obvious that a great number are devoted to the concept of conquering and enslaving of their neighbors, if given a chance. Because of this, there are a super majority of countries in the world that cannot be relied upon to stand for freedom of choice. The human genome is at the heart of this natural inclination of man, the animal’s, desire to enslave his brothers and sisters. Is it any wonder that our Savior, Jesus the Christ, declared that the natural man was/is the enemy of God. This truth is testified to by the fact that it is mainly amoral men or women who are best at playing the social dominance game, and because of this they consequently are more often successful in amassing great power.

Our Parents have set a good example for us by allowing us to have freedom of choice. This they have done despite the certain knowledge that some of us would commit unspeakable acts of cruelty against others in our family. Moreover, they were fully aware that they would have to send our Brother Jesus Christ to be sacrificed to pay for the sins we commit in the slow learning process of life. The significance of that sacrifice can’t be fully appreciated by men unless they enter on to the path leading to spiritual rebirth as blazed by our Savior. The irony is that Christ, who was born a natural man with all the genetic imperatives that we all share, rose above all and became as the Father while still in the flesh. At the time of his transfiguration, he literally held all the power of the Kingdom of God, but at no time did he use that power to force anyone to obey him. He did not even use that power to stop those who would eventually crucify him. He knew that the power of Heaven and our Parents couldn’t be used to prevent we Children from exercising our freedom of choice, even if we elect to do evil.

We all could benefit from following the example that Jesus Christ left for us. He taught simple principles and asked those who heard his words to “follow me”. It is quite evident that those who allow instinctual urges to rule their actions will have a difficult time understanding the altruism of our Lord. Because of this, it is the duty of the converted to spread his teachings. Urging all to partake of the revelation that he gives liberally to those with real intent that desire to hear his voice and follow his precepts.

Men who abhor freedom of choice rule many of the countries of our world. This situation is no different than past ages, including the small increment of time in which our Lord lived, died and was resurrected. The abuse of power continues now as then, and the deadly instinctive social games have not changed over the ages. Within the churches founded by men, the gamesmanship continues unabated with infighting a requisite for getting ahead within those church organizations. Shouldn’t these institutions be the very places where this behavior is not allowed? As long as there are men on the Earth some will always believe that they are worthy to command others, and will do so by amassing power to force their wills upon their Brothers and Sisters. However, there also will always be a minority that believes that all men should be loved and given freedom of choice. They will be recognized by the fact that they are striving to eliminate from themselves the failings of the natural man, while striving to follow the commands of our Parents. They will love their neighbors as themselves while trying to remove social gamesmanship from their lives. They will abhor the abuse of power, and seek only to lift and help others to find the way Home to our Parents. That path is well marked by Jesus the Christ, but we each need all the help we can get to find it and stay upon its narrow way. The alternative path is very wide and it requires no effort to follow it. All that those who choose it need to do is love power and the very transient carnal pleasures its use provides them.