Power Sustains
by Miki Saxon
Yesterday’s post cited a quote from a book, “Power is the ability to sustain illusion.” At the time, I used it in a post that focused on the idea that powerful people often believed and acted as if the rules didn’t apply to them.
Of course, powerful people — glitterati, politirati, digirati, corporati, religirati — have acted on that premise for centuries; still do and always will.
But there is a difference, actually two differences, between then and now.
The first is the new technology that is blurring and even erasing the separation between truth and lies, reality and fantasy.
The second is far more worrying.
It’s not just people’s willingness to turn a blind eye and rationalize what’s happening, AKA, business as usual.
Rather, it’s their willingness to actively embrace it — often with their eyes wide open.
Not as active protagonists, but as passive ones.
It’s not that they are bad people, but as Edmund Burke said, The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Image credit: Angie Trenz