This was partially written over a manic episode in which I was awake for 65hrs.
My humanity has been challenged, my worldview changed, my perspective has shifted.
Who has control? I think about power often now, its impact on humanity, our behaviors, and thoughts. As someone who focuses on the cognitive-ness of humans, I will take a more empirical mindset from my own research tradition while undergoing my individual investigation into this particular phenomenon.
Those who have power have control over other people’s behavior. This appears in the behavior of the subordinate to those in power. The subordinate mimic those in positions of power; the cause I am sure is multifaceted, as all things in the social sciences.
A teacher, boss, state representative, religious leader, or parent have influence over others because they have positions of power.
The patterns of thought and behavior could be classified as a culture. Those with power in that ‘local’ culture can influence those in subordination, influence their behaviors and thoughts to reflect the person in charge. I focus on the behaviors exhibited in the classroom. I also recognize that there are many lenses to view this phenomenon from, such as socio-economic status (class), race, gender/sex, nationality, etc., and I recognize that I am making gross over-simplifications for my own posterity.
I am thinking about the ethical use of control. Assuming you know how to use your position of power to exhibit control over others, you may think to yourself, should I?
Should I use what I know to achieve my objective? I am a chemist, empiricist, and epistemologist, I see my work to be design-based, an engineer if you will. However, I do not see the difference, epistemologically, between actions or practices, between engineering and science, therefore I do not want to give the wrong impression that my work does not generate knowledge, I am a scientist.
Just like a teacher who uses sucrose to motivate, stimulate, entertain, and delight their students, they may ‘notice’ the influence of the sucrose on students in a positive or negative light. We must weigh the constraints of our environment against the design of the intervention. As a side note the example above is not quite ideal for my research. However, it does highlight a point, that the choice of means is equally important to intent. I fold in ‘context’ with methods or choice of means, as the ‘how to control’ is related to the context. Intent, this brings me back to control, and one’s access and knowledge of control, but the use of and motivation to control others. Using candy in a classroom is a lighthearted example I observed as a part of my clinical work as an in-service teacher.
I mention methods, but mainly intent, to concentrate on the morals of this human phenomenon. I bring to question the use of power to control others and whether it is right or wrong to do so. I believe that morals are relative to the culture that follows them, and as the microcosm of human behavior patterns goes, each person’s morality is uniquely influenced by their justified beliefs.
People believe in the use of control to protect and serve. A very political statement nowadays, filled with hidden innuendos. I recognize my own identify informing my particular believes; the people who raised me both served in the United States Army, both trying to climb the socioeconomic ladder. My parents have a strong sense of duty, which is reflected in repeated attempts at defining a true right and wrong. A sense of duty can act as a guide throughout life, that duty may change, but my sense of service is strong, even when my service towards others can change, they sense of duty stay the same.
If your actions are pre-determined or your actions are limited to a pre-determined list written by your oppressors, then your freedom has been challenged and taken away. Victor Frankel was Austrian psychiatrist who wrote about his time surviving the Holecaust. From his observations within a Nazi concentration camp, Frankl wrote A Man’s Search for Meaning. The perspective gained from Frankl’s writing is invaluable, it provides a window into harsh conditions in which people’s freedom, peoples humanity had been challenged. Victor used what he had learned from observing the detrimental conditions of the concentration camps to develop logotherapy; logotherapy posits a potential solution to elevate human suffering is in humanities drive for meaning within his/her life. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” This is what Frankl concluded from his time in the deep hell that is genocide. Frankl noticed a drastic shift of human behavior by observing his fellow inmates, a return to animalistic tendencies where the only concern is self-preservation and a disregard for the humanity of their fellow brothers and sisters. Could freedom be the key to prosperity for all? Could freedom be the ultimate key to elevating so much suffering around the world?
I have no clue. I mention Viktor Frankl to highlight humanities desire and drive to fight against a deterministic world. Many things are out of my control; this pill is particularly hard to swallow as a white male. Throughout my life I have had control or felt in control in most spaces. This control has never been that serious, I am twenty-four after all. Adults rarely give such power to young minds, which I believe is justified, especially as the danger increases.
The shooting at MSU has brought into question control, as the stakes have never been higher in my life. I used my position of power to lead, to command, to delegate what should happen and what will happen.
My position as the leader within that situation demanded control, I demanded control. The fear that comes with uncertainty heightened all emotions, in anyone involved. I used my control over others to achieve my objective, to protect and serve. Intent is vital to the ethical use of control. The intent to protect my students and fellow teaching assistants was my motivation. What if something goes wrong? Well, controlling every possible outcome is… well impossible. Something could have happened, but I controlled what I could. Do I believe this was the right thing to do? Absolutely.
I leave you with the words of Viktor Frank.
Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.
Existentialist in crisis,
JLS