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                         %CONTROL OF POWER POLITICS 870414

     People  who believe it is important to be in  control
engage  in contests over who will control whom  and  what.
Some people believe that it is progressive to broaden  the
base  of  the  group  of people who have power  to  be  in
control;  e.g., to include more women, blacks, and ethnics
minorities  who  have traditionally had  little  power  to
control.    The problem is,  the more people who have  the
power  to  be  in  control the more often  there  will  be
conflicts among them about  the exercise of their power to
control.   Conflict will not be resolved by increasing the
number  of  people who believe it is important  to  be  in
control and who share in the benefits of being in control.

     To  resolve  conflicts  people  must  be  helped   to
transcend  the  belief  that  it is  important  to  be  in
control,  and transcend the belief that self-esteem should
depend  upon the power to control.   Ways need to be found
to reduce the respect  accorded  to  people  who  exercise
control  over others;   respecting them encourages them in
their  belief that  it  is important to exercise  control.
Seeking to please  them as a way of gaining advantage from
them  by  virtue  of  the  power  of  control  which  they
exercise---will encourage them in their belief that it  is
important to  be in control.   They need to recognize that
healthy  people  are  respected  for  their  promotion  of
personal  and communal integrity, rather than because they
exercise disintegrative control over others.

     It  is  futile to try to gain control  of  those  who
engaged  in  disintegrative behavior by trying  to  be  in
control.   To try to gain control of their behavior is  to
surrender  to the rules of their game,  and so to lose the
transcendent positive sum game  of  promoting personal and
communal integrity.    The negative sum game of control is
the  game of addiction to the  various presumed  means  of
achieving control.  It is a collusive game  of mutual self
deception about the importance of  the use of chosen means
and technologies.    The   technical   sophistication  and
potentialities  for  destructive use of such means is  not
grounds  for respecting them as means to  achieve  control
over  those who are inferior to oneself.   Only people who
lack  self  esteem  need  to have people  be  inferior  to
themselves,    and/or  be  controlled  by  superior   self
appointed caretakers.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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