06/02/2026
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Realities of Power
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One is dearest to who has no enemies among the living beings, who is to all creatures.
Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.
Education is a vaccine for violence.
The defenders of the quo often masquerade as the preservers of .
Repel evil with that which is best.
That’s all nonviolence is – organized love.
Action is the antidote to despair.
Nonviolence is a flop. The only bigger flop is violence.
Without a direct action of it, nonviolence, to my mind, is meaningless.
It is the acid test of nonviolence that in a nonviolent there is no rancor left behind, and in the end the enemies are converted into friends.
The best people to have power are the ones who don’t want it.
In this short Life that only lasts an hour: How – How – is within our power
comes from power, and power comes from organization.
One of the most things to believe about power, is that you have none.
Power never takes a back – only in the face of more power.
Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself.
If people don’t think they have the power to solve their problems, they won’t even think about how to solve them.
The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use; of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of .
Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
If you need what I’ve got more than I need what you’ve got. Who’s got the power?
Our deepest is that we are powerful beyond measure.
Power is_ a_relationship that is not a thing. It is a relationship between need and resource, interest and resource.
POWER never Greedy Fearful
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.
Power concedes nothing without an organized .
Power you don’t , you .
When you get these jobs you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else.
If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy .
The key is to find the places where you are powerful, where you are hopeful and where you have the to make a difference.
We don’t necessarily have power simply because we’re campaigning for outcomes that are intrinsically ethical or moral.
That’s where the craft of community organising to translate widely-held into power comes in.
Build power, but never at the expense of your , ethics and a greater sense of what is right and just.
Leaders are people who bring others with them, who are ready for action, who have a sense of anger and injustice and an eye for understanding power.
Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
With great power there must also come great responsibility.
The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.
In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.
Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.
Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change – it can not only move us, it makes us move.
The power to do good is also the power to do harm; those who control the power today may not tomorrow; and, more important, what one man regards as good, another may regard as harm.
All struggles against oppression in the modern world begin by redefining what had previously been considered private, non-public and non-political issues as matters of public concern, as issues of justice, as sites of power.
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.
It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power.
Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power. KLDA_AGDC_IHC
Power is nothing unless you can turn it into influence.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
The limits of are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
So the power question requires asking:
First, who holds resources to effect the change we want, whether it’s changing a law, policy, practice, language?
Second, what resources do our people have, whether it’s time, commitment, money, courage to go to jail, discipline?
Third, how can we combine our resources to influence what those in power need, whether it’s business as usual, getting elected, staying out of court, keeping a reputation or just minimizing cost?
Power always depends for its strength and existence upon a replenishment of its sources by the cooperation of numerous institutions and people – cooperation that does not have to continue.
Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose.
It is the strength required to bring about social, political, or economic changes.
In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice.
One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites.
Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love.
What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic.
Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.
Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
Power is not the white man’s birthright; it will not be legislated for us and delivered in neat government packages.
It is a social force any group can utilize by accumulating its elements in a planned, deliberate campaign to organize it under its own control.
I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.
We can all get more together than we can apart. And this is the way we gain power. Power is the ability to achieve purpose, power is the ability to effect change, and we need power.
What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.
What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.
A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few.
In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.
These relationship-based networks – or deep coalitions – are a form of power.
Conducting ,
Stakeholder Types of DIPLOMATIC + REWARDING Tribute$ TRADEoff Contracts/ Commercial AGREEMENTS for Power Exchanges for POLITICAL Security Targets of GOVERNING REGIMES
The Limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Our deepest is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
Power is the ability to achieve a purpose.
Whether or not it is good or bad depends upon the purpose;
Social power is the capacity of different individuals or groups to determine who gets what, who does what, who decides what, and who sets the agenda.
In the organizing approach, specific injustices and outrage are the immediate motivation, but the primary goal is to transfer power from the elite to the majority, from the 1 percent to the 99 percent.
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and it never will.
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
Step 1:
Identify the problem you are trying to fix.
Expand your knowledge until you have a broad understanding of the issue and the forces involved.
Step 2:
Identify the main stakeholders.
These stakeholders generally include:
those responsible for creating the problem;
those who have the power to fix the problem but are not doing so;
those who are geographically relevant to the issue;
those who are working to fix the problem;
and don’t forget to include you and your group, too.
You’ll end up with a long list of institutions (both formal and informal), organizations, influential people, media, and assorted individuals that are relevant to your issue.
Keep this handy!
Step 3:
Research the stakeholders.
There are some institutions on your list, but institutions don’t make decisions, people do.
So, you’ve got to find out who makes the decisions in those institutions.
And then you’ve got to try to answer a few questions about these people:
Do they agree or disagree with you on this issue? How much power do they have over this issue?
Power Mapping:
Axes. How much power does each individual on your list have over the issue and how strongly do they agree or disagree with your stance?
Step 4:
Plot where all the stakeholders stand.
Draw out a version of “Power Mapping:
Axes” on a board or big chart paper.
Put each stakeholder on its own post-it.
Then, depending on how supportive they are, and how much power they have over the issue, you can place them on the board.
Step 5:
Identify your primary target.
This is the point when you figure out who has the most influence over the issue and who is most likely to give you what you want.
The perfect target (and perfection rarely exists in real life) would be both very powerful and already supportive (or at least easily accessible and open to supporting you).
The hardest target to move, but the kind you will often face, and be forced to take on, is someone with a lot of power who strongly disagrees with you.
Power Mapping: Relationships.
A simple power map detailing who has influence over “mr x” the local official (black arrows) and who “mr x” has power over (red arrows).
Step 6:
Map the power relationships around your primary target.
Take the post-it of the stakeholder you’ve identified as your primary target and place it in the middle of another big sheet of paper.
Are they influenced by any of the other names you have written down on the post-its?
Who can sway them?
Arrange the other stakeholder post-its on the big paper in relationship to the key target.
Draw circles and arrows of relationship similar to “
Power
Mapping:
Relationships.
Make sure to include yourself and your relationship to all in this diagram whenever possible.
Step 7:
the power around your secondary targets.
You may not be able to move your primary target directly.
The only way to get to them is through other stakeholders you’ve identified in Step 6 who have some influence on them.
These are your secondary targets. But who are they influenced by?
To find out, make a separate power map for each of these stakeholders.
Power mapping can be work!
Again, include yourself and your potential relationship to anyone on this diagram so it is clear how to proceed with campaign planning.
Step 8: Use this analysis to plan your campaign.
Now, make sure to actually use this research and analysis to create a plan that targets those who can actually give you what you want, rather than just the people you can reach easily.
Step 9: Revisit and revise.
At key campaign junctures, and as power shifts or you learn more about who holds it, revisit and revise these maps as needed.
You’ll know when!
Potential Risks
People come and go, and the power landscape constantly shifts, so you will need to periodically revisit and revise your power map to maintain a current and accurate picture of the power your campaign navigate.
Also, structures of power not only vary across time, but can also vary from place to place — so don’t assume that the same problem will have the same power map in two different geographical areas.
You need to spend the time to make sure your map is detailed and accurate.
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1. Determine your
Which elected officials are you going to on?
Who is the key decision maker here? Map around a person or institution who can solve a problem.
For Pledge to Amend, it’s going to be an elected official.
2. Map Influence of your Target
Once you’ve identified who you want to target, you can start writing down people or institutions who you think might be able to influence him/her, and their other associations.
An easy way to get started is to look at your elected official’s major donors. From there you can plot out influential constituents and other groups he/she may have interacted with.
Find out everything you can about your elected officials, including the committees they serve on, their past voting records, their individual ideologies, political connections, campaign contributors, which staff people they rely on the most, what their hobbies are, etc.
Use these to connect them to other actors in the field.
Some other ideas for mapping your target:
Past coworkers
Family
Major donors
Voting record and committees your target works on
Media outlets that favor your target
Other personal relationships
You don’t want to rule out anything right off the bat.
So even if you know you don’t want to approach a certain group your target is connected to, map it anyway.
You never know where it might lead.
It’s also helpful to map out any organization (and people related to these organizations) that might work on this issue as well.
For example, if your goal is to get better conditions for workers, it’s a good idea to put down labor unions, even if they’re not directly connected to your target.
Connect these in a visual map.
3. Determine Relational Power Lines
Many of the groups you map out will have to each other, not just to your elected official.
You may notice that one group or actor connects to many other influencers; this is called a “ node of power.”
Even if a node of power doesn’t connect directly to your target, it may still be useful depending on who it’s connected to and how many connections it has.
4. Target Relationships
Analyze the map. You want to focus on the actors with the most connections or that are most significant to your target.
Highlight these nodes of power and start thinking of a strategy to approach them.
It may be helpful to your strategizing to grow your map by expanding on these nodes.
Don’t worry if it gets a little messy!
5. Draw a grid to plot influence and helpfulness
To figure out which of your target’s influencers can be the most helpful, plot them on a grid like the one below:
This is an easy way to asses who will be most supportive, and influential.
6. Make a Plan
Now that you have a map of your target’s relationships, you can move on to the rest of the strategizing process.
Pledge to Amend
For the Pledge to Amend , you’re going to want a power map geared specifically towards influencing your elected officials.
We’ve put together a handy sample power map for you.
When activists try to change people’s lives, or tackle the injustices that they face, we are actually trying to change power equations.
We think power is something that has to be changed outside, in the larger society or community – not within ourselves.
If we want to create permanent change in power structures – or dismantle them completely – we can succeed only by revealing and bringing down the hidden and invisible forces that are holding them up.
Ideology is the most powerful tool created to protect a power structure, because it is the mechanism through which everyone is convinced to participate in that oppressive system, rather than toppling it – they are taught to accept their place in society.
Social power is the capacity of different individuals or groups to determine who gets what, who does what, who decides what, and who sets the agenda.
In the organizing approach, specific injustices and outrage are the immediate motivation, but the primary goal is to transfer power from the elite to the majority, from the 1 percent to the 99 percent.
What is almost never attempted is the absolutely essential corollary:
a parallel careful, methodical, systematic, detailed analysis of power structures among the ordinary people who are or could be brought into the fight.
The first step toward creating a dialogue may be to shout and speak the truth.
Then comes the strategic question: can we build the power we need to create the conditions in which real dialogue can occur?
And that’s when movements have to be resourceful enough to find new sources of power.
Substituting dialogue for equality is a shame and winds up being a play-act. Power, as it is, is never ceded willingly.
Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to and violence.
The nonviolence I teach is active nonviolence of the strongest. But the weakest can in it without becoming weaker.
It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.
Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.
Every relationship of , of , of oppression is by definition violent, whether or not the violence is expressed by drastic means. In such a relationship, and dominated alike are reduced to things- the former dehumanized by an excess of power, the latter by a lack of it. And things cannot love.
No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child.
The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
If you are going to hold someone down you’re going to have to hold onto the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.
The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn’t going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence. The only way I like to see cops given flowers is in a flower pot from a high window.
Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.
Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.
Why is it so easy for us to be willing to pick up arms and risk our lives, and so difficult to put down those same weapons and still risk our lives – in the cause of life? ITTO
The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the of the oppressed.
Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more.
Crisis Team Leader
Université de Genève
Harvard Business School Executive Education
