Power and Powerlessn

© Copyright 2006 Susan Rosenthal. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author. Note for Librarians: A cataloguing record for this book is available from Library and Archives Canada at www.collectionscanada.ca/amicus/index-e.html ISBN 1-4120-5691-8 Printed in Victoria, BC, Canada. Printed on paper with minimum 30% recycled fibre. Trafford’s print shop runs on “green energy” from solar, wind and other environmentally-friendly power sources. Offices in Canada, USA, Ireland and UK Book sales for North America and international: Trafford Publishing, 6E–2333 Government St., Victoria, BC V8T 4P4 CANADA phone 250 383 6864 (toll-free 1 888 232 4444) fax 250 383 6804; email to [email protected] Book sales in Europe: Trafford Publishing (uk) Limited, 9 Park End Street, 2nd Floor Oxford, UK OX1 1HH United KingdoM phone 44 (0)1865 722 113 (local rate 0845 230 9601) facsimile 44 (0)1865 722 868; [email protected] Order online at: trafford.com/05-0589 10 9 8 7 6 Contents Acknowledgments . i Introduction . ii Part One: What’s going on? . 1 1. Does Anybody Really Care? . 2 2. Compassion Isn’t Cost-Effective . 6 3. Who Needs a Heart When a Heart Can Be Broken . 12 4. Nature’s Youngest Child . 16 Part Two: How did this happen? . 27 5. Seize the Surplus . 28 6. Compete or Die . 41 7. Burden the Family . 53 8. Profit From Pain . .66 Part Three: Why do we put up with it? . 81 9. The Lies that Bind Us . 82 10. Blame the Victim . 95 11. Divide and Rule . 112 12. Suffer the Children . 128 Part Four: What will it take? . 145 13. Decide Which Side You’re On . 146 14. Seize the Power . 164 15. Beware the Middle Ground . 185 16. Claim the Surplus . 205 Notes. 228 Index. 233 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to thank the many people who trusted me with their personal stories. Your courage sustains my faith in humanity and my hope for the future. I am indebted to the many writers whose works provided a foundation for this book. I hope that I have done justice to your labors. I thank my father, Joe, who taught me that every problem has a solution; my mother, Joyce, who showed me that women can also be fighters; and my brother, Ron, who understood that socialism is about building relationships. Many people contributed to the creation of this book. For patiently reading the entire manuscript I thank Janna Comrie, Liv Capozzi, Andrea Dawson, Judith Eden, Sophie Hand, Roger Hollander, Selina Mullins, Linda Page, Bill Roberts, Diane Thiel, and Barbara Wilkinson. Thank you Eleanor Dowson, for designing the logo and book cover. Thank you Kim Hanen, for designing and formatting the book’s interior. I want to thank my students, who pushed me to explain everything. Thank you also to Judith Eden, for demanding absolute clarity on the question of human nature. Thank you Janna Comrie, for not letting me wimp out at the end. My greatest debt is to Linda Page. Without her, neither I nor this book would be possible. Undoubtedly, errors and omissions remain. It could not be otherwise. No depiction of the human condition could be complete without the input of every human being. I invite you, the reader, to contrib- ute your perspective. By putting our heads, hearts, and hands together, we can build a better world and a brighter future. Susan Rosenthal | i Introduction Their power — our powerlessness. Our power — their powerlessness. Each calls the other into being. The world is a puzzling place. Like Alice in Wonderland, people rush to go nowhere, too many things don’t make sense, and the threat of losing one’s head is ever present. It seems as if humanity has fallen down the rabbit hole and cannot find a way out. Yet, there is hope. If we can understand how we got here and what keeps us here, we can go forward. Society is divided into two groups of people: a few who wield immense power and the rest who feel vary- ing degrees of powerlessness. As a result, conflicts over power dominate life. Between individuals, the struggle for power kills intimacy. On a social level, competition drives down living standards. On a global scale, the battle for dominance threatens human survival. Power over others and lack of power are both corrupting. However, power — the ability to control events — can also liberate. Power is not the problem; the problem is unequal access to power. For more than a hundred-thousand years, our ancestors lived in cooperative, power-sharing societies. This book explains how the rule of reciprocity was overthrown and how it can be re-established. My experience as a physician compelled me to write this book. As the sister of a disabled child, I thought that doctors had the power to end suffering, and I wanted that power. After I graduated from medical school, I learned how powerless doctors actually are. Most of my patients’ problems were rooted in family dynamics, financial difficulties, and conflicts at school and at work. I studied psychotherapy in the hope that combining mind and body skills would be more useful. It was — I could help people move from uncommon misery to common misery. The problems created by alienation, oppression, and exploitation remained beyond my control. After listening to thousands of people’s stories, I have concluded that social power is necessary for human health. Most people lack the happy, healthy, fulfilling lives they deserve because they are kept powerless and mistakenly accept this state of affairs as natural or self-inflicted. In fact,most human suffering is preventable. This book reveals what must be done. Part One explains that society does not arise from human nature. On the contrary, current social ar- rangements violate human nature. Part Two shows how power is divided by class. Part Three investigates how power and powerlessness are perpetuated. Part Four reveals how powerlessness can be transformed into power. Knowing that the material in this book would be controversial, unbelievable to some, I carefully refer- enced every fact, every quote, and every contentious statement. To my dismay, the final draft contained more than 1,400 references spanning 70 pages. To make the book shorter and more affordable, I cut out most of these references; however, I will be happy to provide specific references on request. A just world is possible. Human beings create society, and we can change it. The need for change is ur- gent. Everywhere, there is injustice, anguish, and anger. This book explains how society shapes people, how people shape society, and how powerlessness can be converted into the power to transform the world. ii | Part One What’s Going On? Many Americans, we know, are horrified by the posture of their government but seem to be helpless. Harold Pinter The 21st century is young and already drips with blood. Washington has launched wars against Afghanistan and Iraq and backed Israel to destroy Lebanon. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the most pow- erful government in the world abandoned its poor to die. Ordinary Americans have lost jobs, pensions, and health care, while oil profiteers reap billions in tax cuts. Secret prisons, systematic torture, and domestic spy- ing confirm the corruption at the heart of the system. Why is this happening? The usual explanations blame human nature, as if nothing can be done. The inability to change society is an extension of the powerlessness that most people feel every day at the hands of supervisors, bosses, and bureaucrats, at home, at school, in the market, on the street, and at work. How can justice be achieved when so many people feel powerless in so many ways? Do we have the world we deserve, or is there another explanation? Part One addresses these questions. • Chapter 1. Does Anybody Really Care provides evidence that people do care about one another. • Chapter 2. Compassion Isn’t Cost-Effective shows how capitalism blocks compassion. • Chapter 3. Who Needs a Heart When a Heart Can Be Broken explains how dissociation helps people en- dure what they cannot change. • Chapter 4. Nature’s Youngest Child reveals how capitalism prevents people from solving social problems. | 1 Chapter 1 Does Anybody Really Care? Bill Moyers recalls looking at photos of his grandchildren and thinking, We are stealing their future. Betraying their trust. Despoiling their world. And I ask myself: Why? Is it because we don’t care? Because we are greedy? Because we have lost our capacity for outrage, our ability to sustain indignation at injustice? What has happened to our moral imagination?1 Such questions demand answers. Every day, crowds of people stream past homeless beggars. Few respond to their pleas for help. One cold Christmas morning, I watched two men walk up to a bank machine. A homeless woman lay sleeping in front of it. They stepped over her to withdraw some money and, as they turned to leave, they stepped back over her again without interrupting their conversation. Events like these reinforce the belief that people are naturally selfish and that social problems result from “original sin” or human nature. Is this true? Let’s examine the evidence. Are people heartless? A poster campaign to raise money for charity shows a half-naked toddler sitting in a pile of garbage with the caption, “How young do they have to be before we give a damn?” The poster implies that people are so indifferent to suffering that they must be shocked or shamed into caring.

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