Who do people think of when they think about people who study power? (interested in names, not whether you agree with them)
I learned informally about power via those "top of the food chain" posters from late grade school or middle school, you know the ones with a man at the top of a pyramid?
In college, Foucault was the only person I recall being specifically -called- a "power theorist"
@cjpaloma
I'd say general social interactions. Power dynamics permeate culture. Maybe somebody tells them some of the secrets of power. I had them, but I also learned about power from a reporter. This was during the Nixon Watergate era. Next really good lessons came from a lover, a reigning monarch, and watching those around him. What an eye opener. All the ways people try to suck up to power. It also really opened my eyes to how rulers wield power, in both good and bad ways.
@Eka_FOOF_A morning! thanks, that's where I think most people learn, from general social interactions...but probably not from directly being around reigning monarchs!!!
It's been so increasingly interesting to me how power dynamics do permeate culture, as you say, they are everywhere and yet we really don't have formal science that studies them on their own…
In contrast, language is everywhere, air is everywhere, economic systems are everywhere, and so on, they all have robust sciences that study them.
This got me onto a long side thought on the dynamics of my relationship with my first royal ex. We were equal partners inside the relationship. To the world I was just a mistress. I just wrote over a 5,000 words on the dynamics of our first 24 hours. I made him prove he was worthy of my attention. He likely already knew wealth and power didn't work on me. Mom's best friend was one of his former mistresses.
@Eka_FOOF_A yeah I suppose I overstated the issue in that comment. I was more trying to say that for the amount of influence it has on the quality of life, the amount of study isn't terribly robust.
And the -general- popular understanding of power isn't very sophisticated either. Some people -even some activists- will still say straight faced: Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, that's all you really need to know about power"
@cjpaloma
One of my favorite t-shirts is
"Knowledge is power"
"Power corrupts"
"Study hard"
"Be evil"
I agree it is a sucky take. Power and it's influence on society. I wonder what they filled that under? Likely politics and management...
My searching for it will have to wait. I'm on a roll writing back story and story bits for the characters in a book I'm writing It is loosely based on my crazy life. I can't use it all as that would be too crazy. I'll have to spread that over 3+ books.
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