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There are days when I feel like a terrible leader.

Today is one of those days.

Just need to #PowerThrough I guess :)

There is no mode of power, or form of power, or concept of power, that can exist in isolation. It might be vested in, and wielded by a single entity, but it requires coordinated effort to create it, accumulate it, maintain it and exercise it.

Every cog, and spring, and sprocket, and lever in the Co-ordinated Power Machine, must by definition, gain more benefit from their coordinated support, than the average benefit of those over whom the power is exerted.

This means that any individual entity can benefit differentially, compared to the average benefit of society, or even a sub-sect of society, by participating in the creation, accumulation, maintenance, or exercising of Power.

It doesn't matter that they dont benefit as much as the individual entity or small group of entities at the top of their coordinated power machine. All that matters is that they benefit more than the average.

In this way we can see how patriarchal systems, which ultimately benefits a small group of white men far above the average, allows even the lowest ranking man willing to participate in the system, to benefit more than the average.

We can see how participating in fascist movements benefits even the lowest ranking people within that movement, more than the average.

It becomes obvious how upholding authoritarianism benefits the upholder, even when they are at the bottom of the internal hierarchy, because they still get to hold more benefit from authority than those who refuse to participate in Authoritarian Power.

A high-ranking politician might be the ultimate recipient of power, but it's not an inherent power accumulated by that individual alone. It is the result of coordinated support.
So this begs the question of the origin of power. And the obvious answer is in coordination.

Power is created by the act of coordinating efforts.
This is not to suggest that coordination of efforts is necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, only through the creation, accumulation, maintenance, and exercise of power, can harmful power be overcome.

It takes coordination to dismantle hierarchies of control

It takes coordination to prevent environmental destruction

It takes coordination to eliminate commons enclosures

It takes coordination to restore healthy ecologies

It takes coordination to achieve social justice

And to be clear, coordination is not always consensual. In fact, it is often conflictual. And even when it appears consensual, the explicit consent may be masking implicit or indirect conflict, coercion, and (dis)incentives.

So what we need, is a definition of Coordination as Power. A testable framework that allows the measurement of the magnitude of coordination, the network structures of influence, and the differential benefits given to support coordinators.

And this is my journey. To map out how power is, and can be, coordinated. To understand the formats such coordination can take. To unpack the mechanisms by which this coordination takes place. It is a slow journey, because my life is full of distractions, but I hope to deliver this framework in full and to see it used to eliminate Power Over others, while strengthening everyone's Power To govern their own lives, to combine their Power With that of the community, and to empower the disempower with Power Through a supportive and surrounding community.

#CoordinationAsPower #PowerOver #PowerTo #PowerWith #PowerThrough

#PowerTo #PowerOver #PowerWith #PowerThrough #CoordinationAsPower

The majority of my analysis and theorizing over the last 2 years, has been focused very strongly on the concept of Power.

So I feel like it might be a good idea to contextualize what I mean when I talk about Power, ahead of posting on this platform in the foreseeable future. I want to note that my theory is my own, and while I draw from existing viewpoints, there are aspects of my hypothesis on Power that I have not encountered anywhere else. Also, I am open to having my mind changed by convincing arguments, and better yet, evidence.

To begin with, I view power as a phenomenon created by the process of coordination. Power as used here, is the ability to enact will. Coordination, as used here, is the management of the dependencies between activities and the entities enacting activities.

Thus, power is the result of the management of dependencies between entities, and management of the entities themselves., according to a specified will.

How coordination is enacted, will drastically influence what kind of Power results. Note that I do not take the deterministic stance, because all components of a complex system cannot be known, and as such we cannot guarantee that a specific type of coordination MUST result in a specific type of Power.

But, we can get close to certainty.

First, we have Power To. This is often referred to as Ability or Capacity. When we find the coordination of physical capability, and cultural setting, and historical influences, and intellectual capacities, and material conditions and kin relations, and social influences (to name but a few entities/components/activities), we arrive at the individual or small group's Power To enact their will. Power To is the basis for the other manifestations of Power, because it is the coordination of the individual or small group within larger contexts that provides the functionality required to enact will at larger scales.

Next we have Power Over, more commonly referred to as Domination, or Authority. Power Over is achieved by one individual or group, subsuming, or extracting, or suppressing the Power To of another individual or group. This type of Power can occur at the interpersonal level, such as in relationships, or within families, or social groups, or it can happen at larger scales, such as within organizations, or institutions, or political parties, or social movements. But it's defining characteristic is that it always has a deliberate power imbalance that is exploited and self-perpetuating. Power Over is, by its very nature, hierarchical. Meaning that in order to exist, and to continue existing, it must coordinate hierarchically.

Then we have Power With, which is commonly referred to as community, or cooperation, or collaboration. Unlike Power Over, Power With is the combination of the Power To of 2 or more individuals seeking to enact the same or similar wills. Power With can occur at the interpersonal level, and it can occur at larger scales, but it's defining characteristic is that it is coordinated horizontally, eschewing hierarchies wherever possible (there are points I will clarify at a later stage about horizontal coordination within hierarchical hegemonies, that require communities to enact pseudo-hierarchical coordination at times)

Finally is Power Through. This is when it is not possible for an individual or small group to enact their Power To, and the surrounding community must eliminate the obstacles preventing such enacting, and set up the structures that will empower those individuals or groups to claim their power and enable them to enact their power.

Now. These are the 4 types of power I have identified thus far, and there may be more, but for the moment, these suffice as a framework to explain almost all aspects of the modern world in which we find ourselves. And if you have read this far, I hope that this clarifies what I'm talking about when I reference these terms in future posts.