POWER: part 3 - Control

Control is the greatest of all illusions. Nearly all people associate power with control.

Control a situation, organization or individual and you have power. It is true, mostly because people or organizations have to relinquish their control in order to be controlled. It makes perfect sense to think control=power. Except, as I have already said, control is an illusion.

People waste their whole lives in a desperate frenzy for control. Those who cannot gain overt control manipulate. They think they are the smartest because they know more then the person who thinks they are in control. They are both losers.

Illusions are objects or concepts that seem completely tangible. Once the integrity is tested, however, it disintegrates or disappears. Like when you grow up and learn that your parents never really had the control over you that you thought they did. You realize that their control was entirely based on you relinquishing yours. When things are said to “escalate out of control,” truly it is just becoming apparent that things were never actually under control.

I am lucky to see through this veil that so many live their lives under. I have a mental illness, though disciplined with medication, can appear and take control over my life at anytime. If I organize my life so that even I don’t have control, I can’t ever lose that control again and therefore have less exposure to danger. Sounds crazy right? Try having some other entity control you for months. Then one day you come to, look around and your entire life is destroyed by your hands, but you have only faint knowledge of how it got that way. Better to be a leaf on the wind (Serenity) and let fate toss you on the breeze or drive an enormous spike through your chest.

The truest achievement comes from relinquishing your control without diminishing any of your power. This way, you can really see what is going on in a situation, but you still have the power to determine your position. Less control=more power.