The Good The Bad and Us

I think that Adler, Nietzsche and Foucault where right when they posited that all human behaviour is governed by the will to power. This may appear to be a purely Machiavellian outlook on humanity but would disagree. In fact there is great space for exploring ethics, construction of identity and social behaviour in such a framework. As a child I noticed that the Bad Guy was, as an individual, more powerful than the lead protagonist. However, through the support of friends (something the antagonist did not have) the ‘good guys always won’. Hence power itself is not per say a bad thing, though through its application one can evaluate the ethical direction of a person. This results in two opposing poles in the continuum morally accountable application of power. The one is ‘power for oneself’; the other is ‘power for others’. In the former, one aspires to acquire power so that one’s station and capacity are improved to the benefit of oneself. The latter, however, is when power is ostensibly shared, in that when one has more power, one is then more capable or aiding others in their acquisition of power. Naturally the former excels far faster than the latter, where as the latter has close connections that provide aid for them in the same way they would for others. We call it Ubuntu. As a modern and rapidly expanding civilisation there is a general tendency towards the former, but very often at the expense of the social body. As a result I have constructed a means by which to measure my life, and that is by a simple question, “are the people I have known better or worse because of me”. I am rather fond of it for it appeases both a categorical imperative and a utilitarian interpretation of morality. Ostensibly it is something both Kant and Mills would agree upon, a rarity indeed.