A political science major through undergrad and grad school, I've spent a lot of time studying power: who has it, who wants it, how its been used throughout recorded history. But, I have reached a conclusion that I need some help to wrap my brain around.
As an example close to anyone reading this, by normal definitions of power, for a number of reasons, the netroots community and blogosphere should not exist. By the very fact of my writing this here, let alone your reading it, we are contravening virtually every major philosophy and theory of power and politics. This kind of paradox leads me to my question.
What if our definition of power is fundamentally wrong? What if we, as a people largely, though not completely, worldwide, have been basing all our political worldviews on a flawed and incorrect concept for the past five millenia or so?
If we've got the meaning of power wrong, then it would mean that everything connected to it is also fundamentally wrong; wealth, property, freedom, and order just to name a few.
It's become fairly clear that the faulty definition of power has contributed to many of the problems blogged about every day here-environmental, economic, political, and social. It's also logical that, given the way the proverbial wind is blowing on those fronts, we have a certain imperative to adapt and find a more correct definition, and that right soon. Which is why I need some help.