Inherited Power

Each human being has the potential to access a wealth of power, manifested in different forms, all ultimately originating from a divine Source.

Before the age of technology, the vast majority of human beings did not have easy access to massive physical, financial, nor spiritual power. With the exception of the children of wealthy aristocracy, and other inheritors of stored power, the average person desirous of power needed to work diligently to amass it. In the process, the person learned about the dangerous consequences of mis-using power in any of its forms (recall the Sorcerer’s Apprentice).

Today, an average sixteen year old American “earns” the right to maneuver a 2,000 pound vehicle propelled by an internal combustion engine by answering a few simple questions and demonstrating the most basic operating skills. The child is not asked to diagram the life cycle of an oil molecule, to do an environmental impact study on the use of the car, nor to take apart and re-assemble the engine, thus discovering the awesome complexity he or she is about to control.

In this way does modern technology serve as *inherited power* (noted by Michael Crichton and others). The user of modern technology does not need to earn the power which technology provides, nor demonstrate any complete mastery of the tool — the user inherits the intellectual, scientific, industrial, and political power which scores of individuals have collected over the centuries.

There have always been slip ups by the powerful, whether created by carelessness, ignorance, or maliciousness. However, never before have the instruments of power been so mighty, or so widely available to so many.

We as a species must learn a simple lesson, and we must learn it sooner rather than later: actions have consequences, and we are largely unconscious of them. (Chaos theory, a branch of modern mathematics, demonstrates that a butterfly flapping its wings over Hawaii is capable of creating a tornado over Nebraska.)

We are not gods. We are flawed human beings, obscured from the divine by our flesh and blood, but even more so by our limited consciousness. Fear, suppressed anger, and internal scars from a variety of sources make it difficult for us to greet each moment with a loving, appropriate action.

Nevertheless, while there is not much we can do about our status as incarnate beings, we do have available to us many varied tools which can raise our individual and collective consciousness.

Given the fact that we live in a world surrounded by technological devices which translate a simple human gesture into the leveraging of massive amounts of physical (the elevator button), intellectual (the computer keyboard), and energetic (the gas pedal and light switch) power, the need for individuals to engage in consciousness-raising work has changed from a low-priority marginalized idea into an urgent, species-saving concern.

The tools of power already exist in the hands of children, young and old. We must face this fact, and turn to unearthing and passing on wisdom in manifesting this power.

I am not a philosopher. And yet I have a clear sense of what I want for myself and my fellow human beings.

I want us to be able to let the muse flow through our bodies and minds, spirit blending with flesh to create moments of life. Moments filled with the sound of singing; moments frozen in clay or stone; moments when pairs of eyes meet, creating light where no light was visible before.

Each one of us can live a life co-creating such moments. I simply know this is true. It is our duty as human beings alive during an extraordinary period of history to remind each other, in language appropriate to the listener, that to live such a life is within our grasp, and that the tools exist to aid us in reaching for it in our own unique way. Then we may step aside and watch as the moments blissfully ignite.