power

Power can take many forms:

• handed to people through the written word (a Constitution or Charter, for example) or agreement,
• by the holding of knowledge and having authority of the word,
• by holding righteousness: silent positive karma in your favor due to historical injustice.
• by fiat, simply taken because the individual has the ability to do so,

Because of the pathologies extant in our current world, nearly all adult interactions are interactions of power because the system today is designed around scarcity and fear (have you obeyed?). The doctor, for example, and his medicine is a system of power. A system that may seem more real or legitimate because you believe in it`s underlying, generally unspoken, belief: empiricism. But empiricism is simply a philosophy of truth. Not truth itself.

Everyone needs power to live, from the tree, to the snake, to the wolf, to the ladybug crawling on your leg. The issue is: Is the power deserved? You'll note that organisms in the wild have learned to hold their power and they move with a type of grace these spoiled humans you see in the city don't have.

It's not an easy question. It's been a nexus of conflict for millennia. Some Bibles called it the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Perhaps try being a leader.

In order to answer the question yourself, and not fall prey to your own ego and self-delusion (remember nearly all of the Western world is trapped in it), you may need to take a little stroll down reality lane. See also mastery of form.