Consider how to address life’s power imbalances

‘Because I can.”

We hear this phrase more and more in recent days.

We hear it directly from co-workers, from celebrities, from political leaders, from persons in business, in service professions, and even from people in the church. We hear it from our parents and our children.

It can be a cry of determination to meet a great need. Or it can be a taunt that satiates a great greed.

It can move us to serve others. Or it drives us to serve ourselves.

“Because I can” is an exclamation of power. Former President Bill Clinton told Larry King he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky “because I could.” He wasn’t proud he used his power that way, but his inner guilt didn’t stop him.

Vice President Dick Cheney is being roundly and rightly criticized for publicly disrespecting a senator with gutter language, then weakly justified it by saying “he had it coming; besides, it felt good.” A twisted way of saying “because I can.”

Power comes in different guises, and it looks different depending on if you are the user or the recipient of that power.

An employer often perceives his power use differently than his employee does. A child may see the power of her parent much differently than the parent even if he/she tries to use that power wisely and lovingly.

A real estate client’s money is big-time power, given the steadily climbing property values in our area. Because he can, the client will often spend far much more than a certain property is really worth.

But the surrounding property owners who often cannot afford the rising tax assessments see his money power much differently.

We could rant and rave together about how persons and institutions of all kinds misuse the power they possess. I’ve done that myself recently, particularly about people who can plunk down $1 million for a “weekend home on the lake.”

I also get incensed at the obscene salaries and bonuses of CEOs while their hardest-working employees may need second jobs to keep their families together.

Frankly, that’s all I can think of doing at the moment. I’m working up a good case of righteous indignation. But my blood pressure may rise faster than the cost of property value if that’s all I do.

So what do you do when you see endless examples of a significant power imbalance that is made worse by the arrogance of “because I can”?

As an antidote to the arrogant power of “what’s in it for me?” I offer a few suggestions (because I can):

“ Decide if personal power or social power best fits your personal belief system.

“Personal” power and “social” power are two simple notions I picked up years ago from a psychologist, David McClelland. Simply put, personal power asks, “What’s in it for me?” Social power asks, “How can I help you?”

Social power fits directly into the mind of Christ as described by Paul in Philippians 2:5-11. Though Jesus had the power due him as God’s son, he chose to take the form of a servant, obedient even to death. But because he lived courageously as a servant of others, God gave him the power to be called the savior of humankind.

How do personal power and social power impact why you act as you do?

“ Decide if you are strong enough to replace “because I can” with “because I should.”

Some residents in our nursing homes have been ravaged by strokes. Sometimes a stroke may damage the part of our brain that inhibits our baser instincts. A stroke victim’s self-centeredness has no harness, and can easily run amok. But some of us don’t need to suffer a stroke to let our selfishness and greed run without control.

Try “because I should.” All you may need to do is stop and think twice about how your desire, if acted out, would negatively impact another person or a group of people.

Think about balancing your “because I can” with “because I should.”

“ Work with others to effect even the smallest of changes in the power imbalance you live with in your daily life.

Find a few others to join with you to identify a simple, positive change you might make in your community, church, family or wherever. You need each other to be fair and get good work done.

But more than that, you need each other to keep each other spiritually honest. Fairness is hollow and good work is shallow if they aren’t grounded in a deep spirituality.

We can rant and rave about the power-hungry actions of persons who make horrible social policy, or who abuse people in their lives because of their superior position, or … (name your example; you’re much closer to it than I am).

But that usually only raises our blood pressure while the situation stays the same.

To be fair and do good may last only until it doesn’t feel good. But when you tap into the living water of God’s radical belief in the potential of all persons, you will be nourished to continue to be fair and do good.

Because you can!