Power. Or, Pulling the Ladder Up
The Crow
It is my belief that as soon as any person believes they are
powerful, they have become weak. Or, at
least weaker than they were before they allowed their egos to gain that kind of
thinking. The powerful fall – they always fall and often it is more than
destructive to just themselves. All of
the yes men and the clingers-on fall with them. Powerful people, or people who do actually
become powerful, do so at the opportunities supplied by the many who allow for
that power and the support of those people.
When they fall, the whole pyramid collapses.
This analogy is even more accurate considering that as
the pyramid collapses, the capstone – the person at the top – often descends to
the bottom and must bear the crushing weight of those who supported their
rise. Be that weight only one of disgust
and the dismantling of their former image.
How is it that I can say the always fall? Clearly that is
not, or seems to not, be the case – always.
This is where it becomes important to read all of the words in my opening statement and in the order, and subtlety, of that statement. The crux, the pivot point, in that statement
is in the word believes. You see,
having been a teacher and a
professional artist for a half a century, it seems very clear to me – when you
stop learning you become weaker.
As soon as a person starts to believe
they are at the top of their game, there is a tendency, if not a strong prevalence, to stop learning.
There is also a tendency
to stop looking around; that is keeping a strong sense of peripheral
vision. Something I have noticed, and
other intellectuals (? – maybe this
applies to me, or not) writers, cognitive specialists, etc. have, is that
as a person grows through childhood to adulthood their social vision and
understanding widens from a narrow tunnel into a broader observation of the
people and the world around them. However, as soon a person acquires, or
achieves, a position where they are a long way above those around them, they stop really listening and stop
watching what is happening around them.
The idea being, “I got here because of how special I am – talented, smarter,
stronger – so why should I pay attention to what anyone else says or
thinks. I’m right and they’re wrong –that must be obvious.” This
viewpoint ignores the obvious. “Life is
really a line, or a que as the
British would say. And that is that, there is always somebody right behind you. You may get to the head of the line for a
while, but sooner or later you will have to
move out of the way, or somebody is going to hit you on the back of the head.
And, if you never look around – or more significantly behind
you (forget where you came from) – that hit
on the head is going to catch you totally by surprise and really, really hurt.
To stretch the analogy even further, and really twisting it
around a bit, if you climb the ladder and do
accomplish the task of pulling the ladder up behind you, you must remember that
you now no longer have a way to climb down – should you need to. You will have to either jump or you’ll get
pushed. And with no ladder, you are
going to fall all the way to the
ground. So as some much smarter person
than I, once said, “Be kind to everyone as you climb the ladder, because you
are going to meet them on your way down.” However, if you've pulled the ladder up behind you, there will be nobody to help you as you fall.
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**The sculpture piece as shown is @ 20" tall, @ 12" wide. It is done in ABS filament with a 3D pen. It is for sale. (It also glows in the dark.) More pictures are available on request. You can contact me by leaving a comment to this blog with your email address. Or go to my website and email me from there.
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