Power of Balance or Power of Trump

Power of Balance is an interesting combination of words at a time the material world is beginning to realize that brute power and force or the power of money and position alone is not enough to make a meaningful difference in life.  

I first found these words as coined by action inquiry leadership guru, Bill Torbet in his book The Power of Balance: Transforming Self, Society, and Scientific Inquiry. In his treatise, he contradicts the popular wisdom that "all power corrupts" and that we can find a balance through an inward focus on self with a practice of action inquiry.[i]  http://www.williamrtorbert.com/action-inquiry/

However, history is littered with unmindful leaders who have not had that balance.  Some even began with good intentions, to eventually mete out misery to many, as they simply did not have the self knowledge to realize their limitations.

Nelson Mandela, on the other hand, stands out as the most well balanced leader of our time, as he came out of his 27 year incarceration to bring harmony to a potential powder keg, at the end of apartheid in South Africa. 

There are others - like the humble, yet principled former President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica; founder of the Body Shop Anita Roddick promoting responsibility and business practice through executive education; Ray Anderson who transformed an environmentally friendly carpet company with Interface; Mindful about the earth's sustainability, Sir Mark Moody Stuart, former Chairman of Shell started a Shell solar venture only to be shut down soon after his departure; Ratan Tata head of Tata Group in India continuing the Gandhian concept of trusteeship; Paul Polman of Unilever going against the grain with ethical practices in a difficult business; Vancouver based, generous real estate mogul Joe Segal; self effacing billionaire investor Warren Buffet sharing their wealth for the greater good.

These leaders epitomize a power of balance - poise and grace to discerningly influence the world with their words and actions.  They, certainly, posses the power of position and money - they are smart, strategic and tough, probably with a high IQ, yet they seem to balance all that with a humility by managing themselves, which only highly emotionally intelligent people can.     

Then there is Donald Trump.  

Trump mania makes it all the more curious as to how a loud, brash blow hard gets so much attention and political support - makes him an amazing inquiry.  People seem mesmerized by Trump, the phenomena – perhaps because so many are fed up with politics and spin.  Yet do people realize that they are potentially handing over power to someone who seem totally fearless, not in touch with reality, perhaps not even realizing the dangers of that fearlessness?.    

Here, I am not talking about Donald Trump the person, the spouse, the father, the friend, the boss, as I do not know him in that way.  I am sure there is a reasonable man behind this and he could not have got to where he is without inspiring and motivating people to action.  I am referring to Trump the phenomena - seemingly power drunk and lacking any boundaries, as anything is fair game - people seem so enamored with.

The Fear Factor

If leadership is about balance, fear helps us to keep that balance, as with fear of consequences, we temper our physical and material power to overcome another, even kill another, which is the most primal and reptilian action we can take.  Trump’s fearlessness comes from his material wealth unlike
Buffet, who have money but are more discerning and reasonable to not indulge in their power.     

It is curious that Trump can say anything that comes to his mouth about anything and anyone, even be a fear monger - and at the moment at least, there are no consequences, except, his popularity is growing.

This also reflects on the people who support him.  Do they feel so powerless to hand over power to one who unabashedly boasts about the might of his money and the “heaven’s mandate” to rule?.  

 

This epitomizes  “might makes right” as, if you cross the mighty - you are insulted, taken to task, thrown out of the room - you have to reckon with his absolute power.

 

Nature’s Laws

Yet the wise realize that nature balances on its own laws.  Our body’s endocrine balance - homeostatis and feedback loops that regulate our energy and the entire system to keep our organs functioning for our health and well-being, is nature’s balance at work. This is the same for our earth, which we have put out of balance with our own indulgence to control nature with the machine run on oil. That is the delusional arrogance and fearlessness and the notion that with might we can control nature. It is Narcissus looking at its own reflection on the water and thinking it is real. Trump, the phenomena, and the supporters epitomize this.   

Nature’s balance extends to us humans to co-exist in the world – there is give and take, compromise in life to find that middle path, which begins with mindfulness, good intentions, thoughts and action.   

Our Reptilian and Limbic Natures

To live well in a society we have to balance between our reptilian and limbic natures. The reptilian is our primal brain to survive and flourish and if we indulge in the reptilian, we seek selfish extremes for power, which impinges on other beings and not sustainable.  

That is why the balance comes from the rational limbic part of the brain – the seat of compassion that lends us to cooperate and create community based on love and mutual respect.  This dance between the two is what helps us to live with self and others around us in relative harmony.    

As we seek power, we test the limits and we pull back – its emotions like fear, shame and guilt for most that balances fearless extremes and arrogance with humility and decorum, to be accepted as a part of the human community.  We find that power of balance through mindfulness, as we become aware of our actions and consequences. 

Plato and Balance

Plato inquired into why power corrupts and the balance needed for integrity and justice to create the conditions for harmony.

In The Republic, Plato introduced the character, Thrasymachus, who argues that “might makes right.”  Yet Thrasymachus is confronted by a Socratic question.

Would not brute power used unilaterally have a different result from that we intended?.

History is littered with indulgent leaders who's intentions went awry with the outcomes to destroy and hurt so many.   Hitler did not intend the outcome he got for Germany in 1945, nor did Bush, Blair and friends - the outcome from their misadventure in Iraq. Neither will DAESH (ISIS and ISIL) who mete out their own misery to millions, meet their intention of a Caliphate, as it does not honour a fundamental balance required for a resilient and sustainable earth – an authentic partnership culture between man, woman and nature.     

Trump, the phenomena, is also deluded with the might of man and that the power he has within his private empire can be replicated in a complex diverse world of politics.      

Power Corrupts

Lord Acton's famous line, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” shows  that the greater one's unilateral power, the more unbalanced and enslaved to one's irrational reptilian desires one can become, the less one is considerate to one's impact on oneself and others.  

In his book Memoirs, Canada’s late Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau wrote about his decision to step down from politics – "The philosopher George Santayana defines happiness as taking ‘the measure of your powers’.  That night I took the measure of mine.  It was time to go home”.  Measure of our own powers can only be taken through an inward, mindful reflection. 

I really wonder, if Trump could take a “measure of his own powers”?.   

Yet it is the voters who have to heed Thomas Jefferson when he said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve”.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[i] Action inquiry is a lifelong process of transformational learning that individuals, teams, and whole organizations can undertake if they wish to become:

§  increasingly capable of listening into the present moment from which the future emerges;

§  increasingly alert to the dangers and opportunities of the present moment; and

§  increasingly capable of performing in effective, transformational, and sustainable ways. – Bill Torbet