Power is dominated in this world by certain sets of people — Western more than eastern, fair more than dark, men more than women, rich more than poor, upper caste more than lower, educated more than illiterate, and so on.
Revolutionary hearts, like mine, hope to see the day when the power structures are up-ended and the deprived can get their dues.
But, a thought passes my mind. Are the disenfranchised inherently nobler, so that when the power structures are up-ended, the future times will be better?
I’ll take an example, and please bear with me because it’s a very prickly one.
If women were to take the place of men in this world, I for one think everything will get better. There will be dignity, there will be peace, there will be better work-life balance. Starting today, if I could, I’d conjure women heads of state in all the nations of the world.
But, then I wonder about the nature of power, how it is eventually corrosive and maddening. Will a power structure with women on top be made of better stuff than the present one? Or will women eventually replicate the same disastrous oppressions of a male-dominated society?
I am keen not to offend readers by choosing the example of women. I don’t have any agenda other than to take an example that is most relatable. Not all of us may fully understand the dichotomies of other states of being, but gender affects each one of us in profound ways.
For a moment set aside physiological differences like reproductive organs. Will women be more nuanced and patient than men are today? More accepting and forgiving? More gentle and wholistic? More big-picture and practical? I’m not talking about twenty years in the future. More like two hundred.
While I hope so, I fear not.
There’s a reason why I think so. It’s human nature to be a trapped by power. Rather than try and explain what I mean, I’ll take a relatable example from a book/movie — The Lord of the Rings. At the very end of his journey, faced with the possibility of losing the ring that has been his through the journey, Frodo succumbs to its power. Before this he was able to resist, because he didn’t have to give up the ring, just not put it on. But when it comes time to destroy it he can’t.
Is that how all humans are? Even if they are revolutionary, they eventually become despots? Napoleon? Castro? Suu Kyi?
Admittedly including the last name is too harsh, and does not belong in the same sentence as the other. Actually for better scholars of history than I, each of those doesn’t belong with the other. But, for the point I’m making, each one of them let down their followers by binding power to themselves and themselves to power.
So, if this is a likely outcome (I’m not saying it is inevitable), why should we change the existing structures at all? Will everything be an Arab Spring?
That’s the hardest challenge for human society. The answer is in actually constructing something we have never been able to — a truly equal society. One cannot replace a power structure with another because the pressures on it will be the same. Instead we need a society where power is in all hands. No powerful class, no powerless class.
This may simply be impossible. Many would argue such a society would be punitive instead of just. It may abrogate the many marvels of humankind in favour of simplicity. Even animals don’t seem to be able to practice this. This is the Gandhian utopia of villages which sound like the ravings of a madman in the present world.
But, that’s why I am an uncertain idealist. I wonder what could be, even if I don’t know how it would work.
For a discussion between two smarter persons than I you can watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta4U8G03q98&app=desktop