That Power Trip
Izzie slinks into the darkness of Secret Diary Land. So so much gossip but so little time. So much stuff happening but work and evil Goblins keep getting in the way. Yessss. In less than two weeks, the Izzie has the very last two of her Goblin exams and should not even be darkening the doors of diaryland at all. But serpents always seem to be linked to temptation.
Today was also D-Day at St Salazars when the new building finally got opened and two thirds of the residents had to be moved in. Izzie was asked to start at 2pm instead of the usual 4 or 5pm which meant there'd be no visits to the Ministry for free access to those Cyberian portkeys. Instead, would have to make do with the nasty net cafe and PAY for the privelege.
Iz was intending to give that update on the Cornelius Fudge School of Ethics - the little incident with the various definitions of 'power'. Got around to posing the question but never got back to the rest of the story. Funny how the ever so innocent Cocytusian Cat automatically thinks of electricity and not the One Ring.
Well actually - like a lot of things - the obvious meaning is often quite difficult to put into words and being a course on so called ethics - it would obviously be power of a political or managerial sort of nature. They did not actually want us to go and look up some dictionary for the following week like they did with some of their silly sayings and proverbs but wanted to know just out of curiosity what we thought power might be at that particular point in time.
Izzie's preferred definition is the ability to get other people to accept your point of view as reality (in preference to their own) and the lecturer's definition was the ability to get some one to act in a way that they otherwise would not have chosen - ie like working instead of lurking and chatting. Izzie hates to admit it but does rather like their definition. Other folks said wishy washy stuff like 'authority' which is not very helpful because it is just switching one word for another without actually explaining the concepts behind the words.
They did not care too much for Izzie's example which ran along the lines that they could decide whatever definition for power they wanted and if we did not agree and write about that one in the exam questions they could fail us. They seen it as an accusation and said that we would be judged not on parroting their opinions but justifying our own and it was outrageous to suggest otherwise. Izzie replied that she was not suggesting they WOULD necessarily do that (though we do have our suspicions) only that they did have the POWER to do that if they so chose - in the same way that an employer has the power to choose the employee that says two plus two is five or whatever the boss wants it to be rather than what it really is. A really stupid use of power but one that is very tempting to many people who are more concerned with social approval than truth.
It's funny that Izzie gets her 'definition' of power from an itsie bitsie story only a couple of paragraphs long and which is just simply one of the best examples of real versus wannabee power in action. Iz is talking about the little argument between Jesus and the Devil in the desert where the devil is trying to set the rules of the game - if you are really powerful, you will do X, Y and Z and Jesus who refuses to play the game by saying that he does not accept those rules but has his own. In other words, anyone who has to demonstrate their power to prove it, probably does not really have it at all - or rather, has just given it to the one who demands such proof.
The second version is the one that gets things done. The first is nice if you can get it because then you can get the poor bastards to do stuff for the Boss willingly and on the cheap and they will be convinced it was their idea in the first place. The first also works when the boss is not around dangling carrots or speaking softly while waving a big stick.
Today was also D-Day at St Salazars when the new building finally got opened and two thirds of the residents had to be moved in. Izzie was asked to start at 2pm instead of the usual 4 or 5pm which meant there'd be no visits to the Ministry for free access to those Cyberian portkeys. Instead, would have to make do with the nasty net cafe and PAY for the privelege.
Iz was intending to give that update on the Cornelius Fudge School of Ethics - the little incident with the various definitions of 'power'. Got around to posing the question but never got back to the rest of the story. Funny how the ever so innocent Cocytusian Cat automatically thinks of electricity and not the One Ring.
Well actually - like a lot of things - the obvious meaning is often quite difficult to put into words and being a course on so called ethics - it would obviously be power of a political or managerial sort of nature. They did not actually want us to go and look up some dictionary for the following week like they did with some of their silly sayings and proverbs but wanted to know just out of curiosity what we thought power might be at that particular point in time.
Izzie's preferred definition is the ability to get other people to accept your point of view as reality (in preference to their own) and the lecturer's definition was the ability to get some one to act in a way that they otherwise would not have chosen - ie like working instead of lurking and chatting. Izzie hates to admit it but does rather like their definition. Other folks said wishy washy stuff like 'authority' which is not very helpful because it is just switching one word for another without actually explaining the concepts behind the words.
They did not care too much for Izzie's example which ran along the lines that they could decide whatever definition for power they wanted and if we did not agree and write about that one in the exam questions they could fail us. They seen it as an accusation and said that we would be judged not on parroting their opinions but justifying our own and it was outrageous to suggest otherwise. Izzie replied that she was not suggesting they WOULD necessarily do that (though we do have our suspicions) only that they did have the POWER to do that if they so chose - in the same way that an employer has the power to choose the employee that says two plus two is five or whatever the boss wants it to be rather than what it really is. A really stupid use of power but one that is very tempting to many people who are more concerned with social approval than truth.
It's funny that Izzie gets her 'definition' of power from an itsie bitsie story only a couple of paragraphs long and which is just simply one of the best examples of real versus wannabee power in action. Iz is talking about the little argument between Jesus and the Devil in the desert where the devil is trying to set the rules of the game - if you are really powerful, you will do X, Y and Z and Jesus who refuses to play the game by saying that he does not accept those rules but has his own. In other words, anyone who has to demonstrate their power to prove it, probably does not really have it at all - or rather, has just given it to the one who demands such proof.
The second version is the one that gets things done. The first is nice if you can get it because then you can get the poor bastards to do stuff for the Boss willingly and on the cheap and they will be convinced it was their idea in the first place. The first also works when the boss is not around dangling carrots or speaking softly while waving a big stick.