The illusive power of power

By Emma Burnell / @scarletstand

I’ve been thinking a great deal about the nature of power. Or rather not of power itself, but of the people who hold it, who embrace it, those who wield it and those who hoard it.

Power in our society is intrinsically tied up in class and wealth. But not all who are wealthy are powerful. Not all who are powerful are upper class. You can chance into money (though at astronomical odds) but power is just a little more intangible. You never win power in a lottery.

David Cameron is Prime Minister. He should be the most powerful man in the country. But in his inability to properly denounce Rebekah Brooks, he showed us the limits of his power and the extent of others.
The Queen is our Head of State. But we all know that she only remains with the trappings of power because she is careful never to use them. That’s why Charles’ eventual ascension to the throne worries monarchists more than it does republicans. When Charles’ attempts to use his power are revealed, it jeopardises the power itself.

Rupert Murdoch controls the flow of more information than anyone else in the world. But today he’s threatened with losing his tightening grip on that market through the misuse of power by those who worked for him. Not much power has been wrested from him. But it’s a bit.

Do the people have power? There was a moment there when we thought we did. That blink of an eye between the French revolution and the credit crunch. Where we believed that by organising together we could bring each other to a more powerful state. Until we saw our industries dissipate and the housing we’d been convinced to call wealth and power become if not worthless, then worth less.

For those banging at the doors of power it can feel like an endless onion. You are forever stripping away layers to reveal yet another layer beneath. Those with power share it only with those who don’t need more. Every time you think you’ve reached an inner level, it is again subtly revealed to you by those with real power just how far from the centre you really are. Maybe that’s for the good. It is often said that the last people who should have power is those who seek it.

When you’re powerful, you know it. It changes you. Everyday things that others have to go through no longer apply to you. You don’t do job interviews, you interview potential employers to see if they are good enough for you. Queuing, paying, waiting – that’s little folk stuff. That changes your relationships with people. How many powerful people know the name of the person who cleans their office? The security guard they breeze past on the way out of the office at night?

We talk a great deal on the left at the moment about the power of relationships. But without the connection between the powerful and the powerless, there is no transaction, just a window into a world neither side understands or can properly translate.

If the powerless won’t seek power, and the power hungry can’t reach it, power continues to be concentrated in the hands of the few. And they misuse it. If we learn nothing else from this week, let us learn that.