Power: A New Social Analysis by Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell is well-known as a philosopher and public intellectual. He was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.

He is regarded as "one of the foremost philosophers of the 20th century".

The book "Power: A New Social Analysis" by Bertrand Russell is about Power over people and organizations.

The author says that "fundamental concept in social science is Power" and "The laws of social dynamics are laws which can only be stated in terms of power". Social dynamics and actions of society are driven by power.

"power, like energy, must be regarded as continually passing from any one of its forms into any other, and it should be the business of social science to seek the laws of such transformations".

"Those whose love of power is not strong are unlikely to have much influence on the course of events. The men who cause social changes are, as a rule, men who strongly desire to do so".

It is important to understand Power over People, and control it, for it can be used to for great good or great evil.

"In former days, men sold themselves to the Devil to acquire magical powers. Nowadays they acquire these powers from science, and find themselves compelled to become devils".

Power

"Power may be defined as the production of intended effects".

How can we influence others to do what we want them to do?

"given two men with similar desires, if one achieves all the desires that the other achieves, and also others, he has more power than the other".

Types of Power:

Naked Power: usually involves actual physical power or using violence. Examples are police, army, riots, mobs.

Rewards and punishments: This is the most common kind of power over another. It involves rewarding someone with money, status etc. Or punishing someone if they do not comply e.g. fines, contract, removed from position, fired from job.

Propaganda, indoctrination, schooling, and education: This is most subtle form of power. Citizens are indoctrination from childhood via schooling. They are then bombarded with propaganda pushed by celebrities. Think tanks are used to influence the 'educated' classes.

The above 3 types of power can be used to influence both individuals as well as organizations.

Who has Power?

Men of intellect and men of science do not have power or ability to influence others. This is because what they do is not mysterious, open to all, and not emotionally charged.

People are emotionally driven, and follow leaders with aura of mystery and supernatural powers who can emotionally charge them. People are not led by logic.

"The truth is that the respect accorded to men of learning was never bestowed for genuine knowledge, but for the supposed possession of magical powers.

Science, in giving some real acquaintance with natural processes, has destroyed the belief in magic, and therefore the respect for the intellectual.

Thus it has come about that, while men of science are the fundamental cause of the features which distinguish our time from former ages, and have, through their discoveries and inventions, an immeasurable influence upon the course of events, they have not, as individuals, as great a reputation for wisdom as may be enjoyed in India by a naked fakir or in Melanesia by a medicine man".

Who has power and can influence others may also change with changing circumstances.

"The qualities which make a successful politician in a democracy vary according to the character of the times; they are not the same in quiet times as they are during war or revolution.

In quiet times, a man may succeed by giving an impression of solidity and sound judgement, but in times of excitement something more is needed. At such times, it is necessary to be an impressive speaker—not necessarily eloquent in the conventional sense, for Robespierre and Lenin were not eloquent, but determined, passionate, and bold.

The passion may be cold and controlled, but must exist and be felt.

In excited times, a politician needs no power of reasoning, no apprehension of impersonal facts, and no shred of wisdom.

What he must have is the capacity of persuading the multitude that what they passionately desire is attainable, and that he, through his ruthless determination, is the man to attain it".

Politicians who emotionally manipulate people have power over masses, crowds, and mobs of people.

However, real power today is "power behind the scenes: the power of courtiers, intriguers, spies, and wire-pullers".

Taming Power

The author tells ancient Chinese story of a weeping woman whose family was killed by tigers. She would not move from that dangerous place because she feared government more than the tigers that killed her family.

"oppressive government is more terrible than tigers".

How can Power over People be tamed? Author talks about "problem of insuring that government shall be less terrible than tigers".

"The problem of the taming of power is, as the above quotation shows, a very ancient one. The Taoists thought it insoluble, and advocated anarchism; the Confucians trusted to a certain ethical and governmental training which should turn the holders of power into sages endowed with moderation and benevolence.

At the same period, in Greece, democracy, oligarchy, and tyranny were contending for mastery; democracy was intended to check abuses of power, but was perpetually defeating itself by falling a victim to the temporary popularity of some demagogue.

Plato, like Confucius, sought the solution in a government of men trained to wisdom".

One such political and economic model is Libertarian capitalism with its advocacy for small government. Ancient Chinese wisdom also suggests the same: "Taoists thought it insoluble, and advocated anarchism".

People throughout history also thought of creating men who were trained as philosopher kings. "Confucians trusted to a certain ethical and governmental training which should turn the holders of power into sages endowed with moderation and benevolence". Plato called this epistocracy: rule by experts.

Sikhs created the Khalsa as philosopher-kings who established the Khalsa Raj(reign) in 1710.

The author talks of a system where "power is confined to those who have the ‘vocation of leadership’".

Although we have the answers to taming power, and this has been solved at various times in history, "our problem has not yet been solved" in practice today.

How to Tame Power

There are three types of Power:

Naked Power: usually involves actual physical power or using violence. Examples are police, army, riots, mobs.

Rewards and punishments: This is the most common kind of power over another. It involves rewarding someone with money, status etc. Or punishing someone if they do not comply e.g. fines, contract, removed from position, fired from job.

Propaganda, indoctrination, schooling, and education: This is most subtle form of power. Citizens are indoctrination from childhood via schooling. They are then bombarded with propaganda pushed by celebrities. Think tanks are used to influence the 'educated' classes.

Naked Power(physical violence) is the exclusive domain of government, police, army, rioters, mobs. We will not discuss it here.

The author in the book focuses on 'Propaganda, indoctrination, schooling, and education'.

This is most subtle form of power. Citizens are indoctrination from childhood via schooling. They are then bombarded with propaganda pushed by celebrities. Think tanks are used to influence the 'educated' 'elites'.

Emotionally driven Enthusiasm or passion is not the answer.

"Enthusiasm, while it can achieve certain results, can hardly ever achieve those that it desires. To admire collective enthusiasm is reckless and irresponsible, for its fruits are fierceness, war, death, and slavery".

"In connection with the psychology of power we saw that fear, rage, and all kinds of violent collective excitement, tend to make men blindly follow a leader, who, in most cases, takes advantage of their trust to establish himself as a tyrant".

Better or different conventional schooling is not the answer.

Conventional schooling destroys imagination, humanity, and joy in the child. "Schoolboys are apt to ill-treat a boy whose opinions are in any way odd, and many grown men have not got beyond the mental age of schoolboys".

With conventional schooling, "Fichte and the powerful men who have inherited his ideals, when they see children, think: ‘Here is material that I can manipulate, that I can teach to behave like a machine in furtherance of my purposes; for the moment I may be impeded by joy of life, spontaneity, the impulse to play, the desire to live for purposes springing from within, not imposed from without; but all this, after the years of schooling that I shall impose, will be dead; fancy, imagination, art, and the power of thought shall have been destroyed by obedience; the death of joy will have bred receptiveness to fanaticism; and in the end I shall find my human material as passive as stone from a quarry or coal from a mine.

In the battles to which I shall lead them, some will die, some will live; those who die will die exultantly, as heroes, those who live will live on as my slaves, with that deep mental slavery to which my schools will have accustomed them.’ All this, to any person with natural affection for the young, is horrible;".

Author recommends "liberal education" as the answer. This "liberal education" can be the antidote to Deep State propaganda for both children and "grown men [who]have not got beyond the mental age of schoolboys".

"the essential difference between the liberal outlook and that of the totalitarian State, that the former regards the welfare of the State as residing ultimately in the welfare of the individual, while the latter regards the State as the end and individuals merely as indispensable ingredients, whose welfare must be subordinated to a mystical totality which is a cloak for the interest of the rulers".

"Ancient Rome had something of the doctrine of State-worship, but Christianity fought the Emperors and ultimately won. Liberalism, in valuing the individual, is carrying on the Christian tradition; its opponents are reviving certain pre-Christian doctrines".

The author stresses the importance of liberal and religious education and good upbringing to counter 'Propaganda, indoctrination, schooling, and education': "just as we teach children to avoid being destroyed by motor cars if they can, so we should teach them to avoid being destroyed by cruel fanatics, and to this end we should seek to produce independence of mind, somewhat sceptical and wholly scientific, and to preserve, as far as possible, the instinctive joy of life that is natural to healthy children".


We can tame power when what we read/hear/watch will "aim at strengthening individual judgement; he will instil what he can of the scientific attitude towards the pursuit of knowledge; he will try to make beliefs tentative and responsive to evidence; he will not pose before his pupils as omniscient, nor will he yield to the love of power on the pretence that he is pursuing some absolute good".



Author ends with positive note and hope.

Religion and religious education has a role. "Ancient Rome had something of the doctrine of State-worship, but Christianity fought the Emperors and ultimately won. Liberalism, in valuing the individual, is carrying on the Christian tradition; its opponents are reviving certain pre-Christian doctrines".

Thought Leaders and public intellectuals can fulfill this role today. It is up to us to choose wisely who we listen to. Rally to your King.

"the task of a liberal education: to give a sense of the value of things other than domination, to help to create wise citizens of a free community, and through the combination of citizenship with liberty in individual creativeness to enable men to give to human life that splendour which some few have shown that it can achieve".

Bertrand Russell work is important and stays timeless and relevant.




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