Power = Conscious Possibilities + Choice + Force

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Power = Conscious Possibilities + Choice + Force

Written by Bob Guyer

Thursday, 26 July 2007 13:57

Power is the result of combining possibilities with conscious choice. Where there are no conscious possibilities choice is not possible. In circumstances where there is only awareness of possibility and no opportunity to take action based on those possibilities, there is no conscious experience of power. When both possibilities and the ability to act on them exist consciously, then power is experienced. In the realm of conscious choice of action the individual is confronted with the existence of other individuals. The choice of action taken by an individual can enhance the freedom and power of another individual, be neutral relative to effecting the freedom and power of another individual, or reduce the freedom and power of another individual.

Creating a political and economic system that supports the expansion of power for the population that is creating and functioning within the parameters of that system is more difficult than creating a system that only supports the expansion of freedom. A system that would increase the collective power of a population necessarily involves limiting the power of individuals to take action that reduces the power of other individuals without their consent.

The legal prohibition against one individual killing another, outside of the parameters of the motive of self-defense, is an obvious example of this type of constraint. In systems where individuals have the right to acquire private property, the legal prohibition against theft as a means of acquiring private property is another example of a constructive constraint on individual power. Both constraints increase the power of all individuals collectively by constraining individual freedom of action that non-consensually damages the power of others affected by the action.

The general nature of individual action that should be constrained through the action of collective political and economic systems is action that non-consensually damages or harmfully invades the boundary of another individual.

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