On Abuse of Power

For anyone who hasn’t heard yet, I have some big news to share. In a few weeks, I will be moving to Japan for two-and-a-half years for my job. As such, it’s a pretty crazy time with questionable internet access, so posts may be pretty erratic for the rest of the year; I apologize for that. But I still have a few thoughts left to put down before everything changes!

Moving always makes me think about the transience of life and reflect on the chapter of my story I’m about to close up, but I haven’t quite finished putting those thoughts together. I promise I’ll get to them, but today I want to write about something else, because I’ve recently been reminded of a few unpleasant facts I thought you might find helpful.

People

Here’s the thing. People are really incredible. There are people in this world who have been through more pain than I could ever imagine and somehow managed to become, not only stronger, but more insightful, compassionate, and loving. I work every day with people who surprise me with their kindness, creativity, and brightness of spirit. Human beings are the crown of God’s creation for a reason; we are endlessly complex, ever-surprising, incredibly deep masterpieces.

People are also, if you haven’t noticed yet, mostly jerks. Not just one or two of us. All of us, at times, if you hang around us long enough. We’re all pretty messed up, if no one’s told you. And because of that, you can’t really trust us to do the right thing unless there are consequences for not doing so.

People say that power corrupts, but you want to know a secret? Everyone is already corrupted. Power is just the dark, moist, warm corner that lets that disease thrive.  We’re all already infected. When you leave one group of people in charge of another group of people without checks and balances in place, it isn’t long before you’re going to have abuse of power, because “abuse of power” is just another way of saying “people being jerks because they can.” And if they can, as often as not, they will. That’s how people work.*

Being a Jerk

I say this because I recently ran across several people being jerks to other people, just because they could. It wasn’t blatant abuse – no one was holding anyone by the collar and berating them – but it was there. There was little oversight, no real recourse, and enough gray area to justify these attitudes, even in an organization that, on the whole, opposes this sort of behavior. I am confident that upper leadership is passionately against these things, if there were anything you could put your finger on. But there isn’t, most of the time, and there’s no real avenue to change things in-house. It’s death by a thousand cuts, and if you complain about any one of them, you’re just a crybaby.

I don’t get treated this way, because I know better. I have enough clout, enough experience, and enough willpower to push back and take what I know is mine. And when, despite that, I come home upset and in frustrated tears, I have friends and family who are more than willing to lend a listening ear and a (virtual) shoulder to cry on.

Getting Started

My heart hurts for those who don’t have these things – who don’t have (or don’t know they have) the power to stand up for themselves, and someone at home to tell them they’re worth it. There are a lot of people getting stepped on in this world. Someone needs to let them know that they have dignity, that they are worth it, that they can push back and take the respect that is rightfully theirs, even if it means rocking the boat and ruffling a few feathers. We need to come together, fight the disease in all of us, and cultivate instead that bright, compassionate, brilliant thing that is the human spirit.

But society isn’t going to evolve into that naturally. People have been people for thousands of years, and on the whole, we aren’t changing anytime soon, democracy or no democracy, constitution or no constitution. This isn’t something that “they” should do. It is something we must do.

And looking at the state of things, I’m thinking we should probably get started.

*If you don’t believe me, give it a few years. I used to not want to believe it, either.

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