Even at the level of individuals, we each have some form of "power", however minute, as we continually influence the decisions of friends and family members around us. We do not think much about such issues, perhaps because some of us see it as a natural result of our daily minimum dose of interactions with others, humans being social creatures. Yet some of us would beg to differ, to think that power is something that can be nurtured and cultivated by taking the appropriate steps in a series of manoeuvres.
In this post, I hope to briefly (though I expect it to be long) go through my views on a "model of power relations" that I personally use in aspects of my life where I wish to build up my influence gradually.
What is power?
First of all, I would define "power" as the ability to influence the outcomes of events in other individuals' lives. This can be done either directly by wielding something of value to the individuals involved, such as a boss threatening to fire his subordinates and thereby depriving him/her of income. Otherwise, it can be done indirectly by influencing the actions of individuals, such as friends putting peer pressure on each other to perform certain acts, such as smoking, studying harder, or choosing one hangout over another. The eventual objective is to have the ability to dictate the course of another individual's actions or fate to align with your personal interest, be it detrimental or beneficial to the individual.
Properties of power
We should note that there are certain peculiar properties of power. First and foremost, power is finite. It is limited by the number of people in this world, and the number of activities in their lifetime that can be influenced. The latter can be influenced by numerous factors, such as the nature of an individual's work, the number of waking hours he/she has, and the activities he/she participates in. These factors come together to define the extent of "man-made" influence that can be exerted on a particular individual.
The second property of power is that it can be transferred from one individual to another. Of course, how else can people rise to places of power, given that amount of power in this world is finite? This is to say, for any one individual to gain an increasing amount of influence on the course of a group of individuals' lives, another individual's influence on the group must be proportionally decreased. This can most easily be seen from the shifts in power from one leader to another in countries, religious organisations, and corporate companies, where major decisions are made by the highest ranking office bearer, of which there can be no equivalent of within the organisation. In the everyday lives of individuals, we could use the example of a new student faced with 2 rival camps of friends in a school who would try to influence him to come over to their side. We can assume that the 2 rival camps initially hold the same amount of power over the same child, but the moment the child joins 1 camp, he has just transferred some influence, and hence power, over his life from the losing camp to the winning camp. The net result is that the losing camp has a decreased ability to influence how he would spend his time, while the winning camp would have an increased ability to do the same.
Types of power
Power can be divided into 2 broad categories, as seen in the section above. They are namely hard power and soft power. Hard power is achieved when one is able to cause other individuals to perform an act or be involved in an event against their will. That is to say that an individual who is being manipulated by hard power is fully conscious of the acts or experiences he is going through, and will indeed bear negative feelings against it and the perpetrators. Such power is most obvious in terms of national relations, where larger states with stronger militaries are capable of exerting pressure on their neighbours or other states on the basis of the possibility of military aggression. Within societies, this is mostly found in hierarchical organisations, such as the workplace (or at least, 99.99% of the time, or you wouldn't be hating your bosses, would you?), schools, the military, police force, or the civil service. In such places, the hierarchical structure confers upon individuals in higher ranks or positions in the organisation the ability to withhold something of value from subordinates (e.g. salary), or to dish out disincentives such as punishments.Soft power, on the other hand, is more discreet or subtle. This is the power that motivational speakers, influential political personnel (especially during rally speeches) hold. Soft power is the ability to make individuals perform an act willingly, in other words, to bend the will of other individuals to align them with your own. It is most evident when we look at the relationship between individuals in society. Many individuals are susceptible to peer pressure. In fact it has been shown that for the majority of individuals, our decisions are affected by those around us to a certain extent, a reason why introverts are usually the driving force behind novel ideas and inventions. Another example is the use of advertisements to change the mindsets of individuals, to build up momentum leading to a new fashion trend in the fashion industry. In politics, candidates use various media to affect the decisions of individuals on the polls. Every festive season, corporations use decorations to foster a mood that is conducive for promoting spending within their compounds. In the above examples, it is seen that soft power is used to cause individuals to perform a certain action which they believe they are in control of (and in many cases, they actually are, logically speaking).
Here is an interesting form of power (that inspired me to write this post):
How do we gain power?
Since the above shows that there are 2 forms of power, it is possible to gain power in 2 ways. However, in most situations, we would assume that the power discussed is a combination of both. In this section, we will discuss on how the total power of individuals can be increased by utilising both an increase in hard and soft power. For the purpose of our analysis, I'll use a JC economics style graph.
First of all, I will make an assertion that power is initially gained in the form of soft power. This is because the majority of us will not be able to command the wealth of resources required to form the basis of hard power when we first start out gaining power. Also, there will always be a dependence for trusted individuals around us who should be best gained when we are not endowed with enough resources to attract the wrong attention that hard power often brings us. Hence, at the beginning, soft power is of utmost importance as we seek to establish ourselves in society with whatever little resources or reputation we possess. However, as a person gradually gains a certain amount of power, he/she would now have built up enough resources or reputation to exert control over another individual who might give in to his/her demands on the basis of fear of antagonising him/her or prospective gains from being able to gain favour and tap on the power base of an established individual. Finally, as an individual continues to gain power, he/she will find that increasingly, soft power becomes more relevant again. There are 2 reasons for this. The first is that as an individual gains power, he/she moves up the hierarchy where further gains in power will probably come from power transfers from other prominent individuals who possess similar amounts of influence. Hence, they will not be enticed by the same things they have in excess, and hard power loses its lustre. Also, as an individual gains power through expanding hard power, he/she should have already tapped on much of his/her available resources, enough to comfortably meet the needs of most normal individuals. Anymore motivation from his/her subordinates will have to come from ideals or loyalty that is strong enough to put them out of their comfort zone, to overcome the inertia of a stable, routine life, into one that is likely to carry certain risks and discomforts.
To gain soft power would be much more difficult than hard power. It usually requires forming an emotional connection with other individuals so that they are not swayed by the environment, or the incentives in it. These can be done through friendships forged with others, such that people remain loyal in face of temptations by other individuals. Charisma is also one important means by which soft power can be obtained. This is the ability to capture the hearts and minds of individuals one interacts with such that the words of the speaker is transformed into the actions of the listener. For example, planning a speech to have a strong build up to a climax, where the most important point/argument is delivered is a technique that can build up the emotions of those around an individual and finally bring it to a "high" that implants the idea into the audience. Finally as an individual gains power, his ability to obtain more power rises in a non-linear fashion (note that I have held back from using "exponential" as it still may not be to that extent). Once an individual has gained power, he/she will have gained a reputation among a sizeable crowd. This increases the chances of him/her gaining the attention of others (e.g. becoming a topic of discussion among the common folk), and along with a base of people willing to spread the good word to other individuals, he/she gains a new platform to gain power. Also, with the good follower base, there will be some form of peer pressure on some individuals to conform and subject themselves to the wills of others in order to seek the acceptance of those they are well acquainted to.
Otherwise, it could be in other ways such as running personal errands or taking up responsibilities within a team. This, in the simplest sense, makes individuals increase their involvement in the activities of the group or a particular individual. With this increase in involvement, individuals increasingly exert their presence on others
Hard power is gained by using resources available to us (e.g. a position in a hierarchy, financial ability to procure services, etc.) to alter the actions of individuals such that they fit one's will. Gaining hard power is relatively straightforward, by rising up the corporate ladder to gain a position high in the hierarchy or/and commanding a greater amount of financial resources. Do note however, that individuals need not necessarily need to use hard power just because they have such resources at their disposal. It is possible for soft power to be borne from such excess of resources, as other individuals idolise such an individual as a role model, or that knowledge of an individual's high social standing automatically commands a high amount of respect from other individuals due to assumptions and societal biases.
It is interesting to note that some, if not most professions seem to carry with them more of one type of power over the other. For example, businessmen, bankers or other corporate high-flyers, tend to command more hard power due to their job being much more financially rewarding. However, societal stereotypes tend to hold that such individuals are of poorer moral grounding, which prevents many of them from wielding soft power. Professions like doctors and judges, on the other hand, tend to carry with them an "angelic glow" which confers them respect, trust and all the basic necessities of soft power. While the abovementioned professions are indeed well-paying, by societal standards, it is also notable that it takes many years of training and much work to achieve much less than what people in the corporate world might be achieving at a younger age, much less aspiring towards.
Maintaining power
As mentioned, power is finite, and hence can be eroded by the presence of other individuals gaining power. Therefore, individuals who wish to stay in power need to continue performing certain actions to maintain power. These are mostly similar to those involved in gaining power, but to a less extreme end as the motive now is no longer to expand but to maintain what already is. It should however be noted that at this stage, individuals who have depended on hard power should begin to convert over individuals' loyalties using soft power as soft power forms a more secure basis for his/her power base. After all, there are many duplicates of large organisations with hierarchical structures, all of them headed by individuals commanding great financial resources, but there are few who can use soft power to exert their influence on others around them. It is in fact compelling to make an argument that soft power is the pinnacle of power as it is the best means to ensure loyalty at any point in time.
And the informal section...
Finally, a long post at the end of a long hiatus. Med school hasn't been cutting me much slack, or maybe I'm just a little too caught up in the rat race. Typical Singaporean huh. I'd like to believe that I'll be working myself to death whichever faculty I'm in, so I'm not particularly affected by the workload.
I've recently started learning calligraphy, building on the specerian script (aka cursive) I learnt to write previously. I've expanded out to gothic as well and it's now gaining momentum. It was... strangely satisfying, turning something so mundane like writing the letters of the alphabet into something worthy of more appreciation than a glance. Especially when I know that it gives me the basics of transforming any word into something aesthetically appealing. Maybe I should do a post on it some day, just a brief introduction to calligraphy. How odd that a "doctor-to-be" is learning to write for aesthetics, when half of society assumes we can't even write legibly in the first place.
Calligraphy is an example of the skills I feel that people should learn for more than mere entertainment, something that does not require much of a large tool or prop, which can be used at almost any event (I mean, words are everywhere). Just another way to look smooth at social events and a good, respectable way to answer the question "so, what are your hobbies?" without stuttering, or saying something less politically-correct. "I like to go clubbing with friends" - does not go well with middle aged conservative people, e.g. your S.O.s' parents, especially on a first meeting. "I like k-pop" - does not go well with some people with strong views on music/drama genre. Still, singing is a good place to start but I'm not particularly fond of using my voice, even for normal talking, so... nope. Next up I was thinking origami. Paper is everywhere too after all. Problem is it takes forever to get something interesting done up. Just try searching "ryujin 3.5". Hemoptysis + syncope. Bad for my mental health too. That thing is reserved for the OCD, of which I might just count as.
On a side note, t'was the ORD season that just passed, and to all those who just ORDed, good job! Now to take up the books again, or to face the world, for those who are headed straight for work. As for those finishing up their last few months, hang in there! Your pink IC isn't too far away! For the regulars... I just hope you don't feel like you made the wrong decision, or turning back might be a little difficult at this point.
Time to hit the books again. Medicine exams are just round the corner for second year NUS medical students.
