The Paradox of Power
There are few metaphysical concepts that have a tangible, real world impact that is measurable. The idea of power, the practice of power, and the result of power is a metaphysic that directly influences the real world that not only humans live in, but the animals, plants, and all matter and reality that it comes into contact with. There are many forms of power, concecptions of power, practices of power, motivations for power, desires for power, and results of power. It is not something that can be measured independently through scientific inquiry, and it is and even greater challenge to study its philology. The great truth with power is that it simply something that is. As such, it simply is a factor of agency. To be an actor in an environment is to have agency, and to have agency is to have power. The more agency the actor has, the more power the actor has. However, there is a paradox that comes with having power. Power itself is not an unlimited resource, although this is not to say it is also a zero sum game. It does not exist in a vacuum, and just with life itself, it requires nourishment and exercise in order to maintain and grow. To have power is to need power, and to need is to be subject. To be subject is to be in service, and to be in services to be a servant, or a slave. The enslavement of the self to power is therein a form of weakness, as the need for power is the need to maintain the power. Handling power becomes itself a powerless act, and powerlessness is weakness. This is the paradox of power.