Power only for oneself diminishes everyone

This post is based on the article Toyin Ojih Odutola’s Visions of Power by Zadie Smith August 10, 2020, in The New Yorker magazine.

This New Yorker article is about the work of Toyin Ojih Odutola, an artist who examines themes of power in the master/slave relationship. She imagines black females as the master race, and their manufactured humanoid male beings as the slave race, depicting their story in a series of forty charcoal drawings. 

Quote from the artist about this series:

“My initial aim was to tell a tale of two beings, one born, another made/manufactured, who exist within a system that enterprises and stratifies war, imperialism and hierarchies—and how these two mitigate their respective lives within it to, ultimately, cross over and come together to bring the whole system down. But they fail.”

The article makes the point that by upending the usual stereotypes of who is master, who is slave, the artist helps us see more clearly the nature of power and its characteristics, that it is both individual and systemic. One point made in the article is that to change the system, love alone is not enough, we also need to change the system of laws. The quote the writer uses is “Love is not law”. 

In the artist’s story, it’s clear that in the relationship of master and slave, both are demeaned, both are diminished. Although we tend to see the oppressed as the one who loses, on reflection it’s clear the oppressor also loses, that in the end, both lose.

From my perspective we can see that master/slave relationships diminish human beings as a whole, they weaken the fabric of humanity, producing a rip in the cloth that threatens the whole tapestry of humanity to tear apart.

What gives anyone the right to unilaterally decide they should have authority over another? When this happens, the other disappears, and the oppressor is left alone in their own illusion. As human beings we need each other, we need everyone for this beautiful fragile human tapestry to succeed. The illness of assumption of power over another, without their free will to choose whether to accept it, is reflected in many relationships of authority: in business hierarchies, in teacher/student relationships in education, in gender relationships, in family relationships, in social class relationships in society. The illness of egoism, of desire for power only for oneself, needs to be replaced with active love of the other, that humanity might succeed, everyone’s uniqueness received with love, that the tapestry might be filled with strength and beauty.

To achieve this, first, we need to choose to build the power of love in ourselves. From there, to build on this foundation a clarity of thinking that chooses healthiness for all. Finally, with purposeful willing, to work to bring it about together. Can we do this as human beings? I think so, one person at a time. Each choice we make to bring this about strengthens the overall cloth. In the active mutual love of the other among two people a third power is created between them that is invincible, that cannot be overthrown. It strengthens and transforms both, creating a light, an aura, that invites others to participate. Let’s choose to build this power together that all human beings might have the chance to flourish.