power

[Catherine Driscoll]

> Exactly Joanna. Love and it's spillovers, I think social psychologists
> call such phenomena limerance, are social behavior-perspectives that
> dissolve the desire of/for power in the sense of power-over. That's not to
> say we should all become Romantics by any means, but it does show there
> are lots of social sites where power is absent. Doctors, nurses and
> firemen/firewomen have power in the sense of power-to but we'd be hard
> pressed to insist that they exercise their power-to for the sake of
> power-over.

Accepting the possibility that I and everyone I know have completely warped 
love lives and other relations of care -- these all involve power and yes even 
in the sense of power over... we can help, harm, betray, support, manipulate, 
influence, seduce, distract, monitor, belittle, dismiss, praise, ignore, value, 
and so on and on those we love, care, or are responsible for. Even at that 
level those relations not only rely on the power over someone and/or a 
situation but are power. Just because it doesn't go only one way doesn't mean 
it's not power. Power isn't defined by abuse of power.

Catherine