August 27, 2007
Self-Determination
is the Way to Resist Karl Rove-Style Power Grabbers
Celebrated and
demonized, Karl Rove in a few days leaves his post as George W. Bush’s
top adviser and the principal enabler of Bush’s political career.
Few presidential
counselors have ever had such clout over national policy as well as
partisan politics. Rove bandied his power about with all the finesse of
a flame-thrower.
His ballyhooed
departure prompts a meditation on the nature of power. If, according to
Lord Acton, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, then
surely power is also boring, and absolute power a hell of tedium. After
a while, it must get downright wearisome for others constantly to bow
and scrape or hop to at our every whim or gesture.
Think about it. The
utter monotony of absolute power is probably why God decided to grant
free will to all of creation. By doing so, our creator avoided a dreary
eternity of wiping our noses and tying our shoelaces. It may also have
been that God loved us enough not to want to keep us perpetually
dependent children, desiring for us instead the right and the freedom to
grow up and exercise our own self-determination in our lives and our
beings.
That priceless gift
of free will (self-determination) is strikingly similar to the vision of
the founders of this nation, who wanted citizens of the United States to
exercise self-determination in their government. While not rooted in any
particular religious creed or any one political viewpoint, this parallel
is the true spiritual justification for this country’s existence. Our
founders did their best to establish a political framework that
subscribes to and sustains on Earth the spiritual precept of
self-determination/freedom.
This principle is
anathema, of course, to those who insist on either more – or less – than
their legitimate measure of power. Human history is cluttered with and
scarred repeatedly by power-grabbers and the Karl Roves who serve(d)
them. The well-known litany is as dull as it is depressing.
But what about the
power-dodgers – those who covertly disavow self-determination? Fearful,
confused, distracted, exhausted, such souls are more than willing to
cede to others even their rightful power over their own lives and beings
in order to avoid possible blame. After all, something invariably will
go wrong.
Nature abhors a
vacuum. Wherever/whenever there are power-dodgers, there will always be
power-grabbers. The former, however inadvertently, enable the latter.
Power-grabbers are by no means limited to politics. In the workplace, at
home or school, even in houses of worship or personal relationships,
there are always power-dodgers and the power-grabbers who gravitate to
the resulting vacuum. Hence the games people play.
Our only protection
from this dance of death is to embrace self-determination and exercise
it constantly in our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and actions. With a
measure of wisdom comes a deeper recognition that none of us knows how
to exercise self-determination perfectly and that furthermore,
perfection is not the point. We won’t be judged or damned for trying,
even when we make mistakes. God’s unconditional love assures us of that.
The alternative is
untenably demeaning. In refusing to exercise self-determination, we rob
ourselves of our dignity and leave ourselves wide open to abuse from
those who would strip our power and freedom from us, all too often under
the rubric of “for our own good,” or “for our safety and security.”
Save us from
ourselves? Not a chance. That’s our job.
© 2007
North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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