The Little Prince and "Power Over"

My first serious education in community organizing was at the Collective, and I remember on the very first day we read an essay together which explored the nature of power. 

What a wonderful thing, to take a room full of young people and talk frankly about that mysterious, dangerous, life-giving thing—that social force which runs through all the world—that subject of subjects we have somehow turned into taboo. The author laid out three sorts of power: 

The first is "Power To" accomplish something. To have Power To is neutral, descriptive, and has no more to do with morality than the question of whether one owns a kitchen knife. It's a tool—what are you going to do with it? 

The second is "Power Over" others—be they persons or whole systems, like nature. To have Power Over is at best a profound responsibility (that of a parent comes to mind) which easily slips towards the dark logics of domination and subjugation. Power Over suggests that Power To belongs (or should belong, or inevitably belongs) to one but not the other. It presupposes a natural hierarchy, where power originates on high, then flows downward to 'give' structure and higher purpose to the weak, who would otherwise either misuse their "Power To" or never have it to begin with. 

The third is "Power With" others—one collaborator or a whole community. Power With suggests that we gain Power To through an inherently fluid social process. To have Power With involves social negotiation—communication, collaboration, back and forth—and this comes with challenges. But ultimately, in my view and in the view of this half-remembered essayist, Power With is not just the most moral conception of Power—it is the most accurate and useful for those who wish for the Power To do anything, small or large. In fact, what looks like "Power Over" is usually—perhaps always—better understood as Power With, even in those cases where power is asymmetrical and hierarchies may be fair or natural.

I recently re-read the Little Prince, and in it there is a moment when the titular character meets a king who claims to rule the whole universe, and that even the stars in the sky follow his commands. But when the Little Prince requests for the king to order the sun to set, he learns that for all his "Power Over," this supposed Absolute Ruler may not have very much "Power To" after all.

"If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "The general, or myself?"

"You," said the little prince firmly.

"Exactly. One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform," the king went on. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable."

"Then my sunset?" the little prince reminded him: for he never forgot a question once he had asked it.

"You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But, according to my science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable."

"When will that be?" inquired the little prince.

"Hum! Hum!" replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky almanac. "Hum! Hum! That will be about--about--that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed!"

In this passage, we see how the King jumps through mental hoops and ultimately fails to communicate—or even to personally understand—the nature of power. He is genuinely benevolent; like the best of us, he wants to wield power only insofar as doing so is for the common good and responsive to plans and needs of others. We could almost imagine him issuing a decree that his universal kingdom's economy is to be administered according to the principle: 'from each according to ability, to each according to need.' 

But the king is a king, and can only understand himself through the frame of "Power Over," even when it blinds him to his real circumstances.