Title: The Difference Between Power and Force
Original CoS Document (slug): the-difference-between-power-and-force
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Created: 2022-12-04 21:15:34
Updated: 2024-12-11 20:17:02
Published: 2022-12-04 03:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T21:21:20.077753742
When we use the word power as it relates to people, what we mean is the ability to move people - usually with some goal in mind. However, what we often fail to mention is that this power is not the same as the force of coercion. It does not move people to do what they do not want to do, but persuades them of the rightness and goodness of the cause.
Power comes from leading with ideas. It stands in front and says, “Let’s go this way.” It points towards rightness and goodness and is willing to go first. People follow power because they believe their leaders care about their well-being and have a strong sense of a positive future.
However, when someone tells you that you must go this way or take that action, and then institutes a punishment if you choose not to do so, they are acting out of force, not out of power. Force comes from a failure to lead. It stands behind people and threatens with a weapon. Fear of being hurt physically, financially, or even by reputation is the motivator. And why? Because almost no one wants to go to the negative future that the coercers are forcing them toward. Force does not go first. In most situations, it refuses to obey its own rules. This way of the bully has neither rightness nor goodness on its side.
Force has weakness, insecurity, and lying at its core. Its users are narcissists who must bully others in order to feel they have self-worth. They hate work and they hate others for not hating work. And so they maintain their authority with fear instead of love. They cannot tolerate truth, freedom, or equality.
These coercing bullies seek to loot your capital, hurt you with it, and then blame you for their looting.
These narcissists weaponize everything but the truth and they institute policies of inequality. They 'sic' agencies – the FBI, IRS, OSHA, FDIC - upon others to get them to bend to their wills (bullying agencies to bully citizens). However, they cannot tolerate the truth. Once citizens share the truth about the coercers, they risk significant retaliation disproportionate to the offense in order to send a clear message. While they are coercing, these people invent new ways to force the populace into behavior they would not do otherwise. They do much of their badness in the dark while lying about everyone who opposes them. “You’re a racist if you disagree.”
Notice how current policy has at its core the insistence that some other group is more deserving and more valuable than the group that is largely producing? This is the essence of inequality and is therefore the opposite of freedom. It is coercion and tyranny. It is slavery.
Coercers hide behind “equity” and allegations of science while ignoring truth. They punish others for telling the truth. They talk about wealth redistribution as though wealth were free. They refuse to talk about work redistribution, and misunderstand that work is the only way that wealth can be created. As they are certain that they are better than others, they are willing to enslave them.
Whenever a new rule is enacted, ask if its essence is inequality. Is the “stick” being used? Is this new rule about failure and taking? Are hate and are lies required to keep it moving? This is force.
Is authority willing to follow its own policy? Is the “carrot” the main motivator? Does it treat citizens as equals? Does it care about love, success, giving, freedom, and truth? This is power.