Article June 14, 2004 Issue

REAL power

By Tom Black

You hear and read a lot about power these days. Last summer when the electrical power grid in the northeast United States and southeast Canada failed, industries—along with municipal water and transportation systems—were shut down. Millions of individuals were pitched into darkness, stranded in elevators, caught in traffic jams caused by malfunctioning traffic lights.

It's not unusual to hear about the power of political majorities, personal connections, wealth, and education, while current events and television push on people the belief that ultimate power resides in violent weather, or in explosives and military force.

And many of us have seen videos of the jolt of raw material power as a military jet, moments before takeoff, lurches against its shock absorbers and brakes when its afterburners are ignited. It's like a bull lowering its head for a charge. Mao Tse-tung said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" (Bartlett's Famous Quotations, 1982, p. 826).