Power

In my reading of chapter 5 I have a new perspective and outlook on power and how it is distributed, who holds the power and the manipulative ways of those with the power. In  my reading I discovered the word power is derived from a Latin word potere which literally is defined as "to be able". Power is considered to be the ability to bring about an intended outcome, even when opposed by others. I was enlightened as to how much power can affect our daily lives and how much our society is controlled. Power affects all levels of society no matter how rich you may be or how poor you are. There are many different forms, groups and types of power used to control individuals. Five things that stood out to me in chapter five would have to be power in small groups and organization. The first is reward power, it is the control that makes someone do something because they know in the end they will be rewarded for their behavior such as giving a child an allowance after they have done their chores. Secondly coercive power, which is the ability to punish, for example if a child does terrible in school the parent has the ability to take away their allowance for a few weeks. Thirdly, legitimate power is used to make you feel obligated as if you "ought to obey", children are told they have to be obey their parents because its a norm of what children are expected to do. Fourth, expert power comes from the notion that an individual has more knowledge than others such as parents they usually tend to portray as if they are "know it alls" because they are so much older than their children. Lastly, referent power which is based upon feelings of identification, affection and respect for an individual such as a child looking up to a parent or another adult role model.  In watching the video "The Milgram Experiment" I concluded that in certain settings we allow others to have power over us and we don't even realize it. Such as the example used in the video, when we are at the dentist we allow them to put sharp objects and drills into our mouths in another setting in life we would never allow such a thing to happen to us. We blindly allow people to have power over us and tell us what will and will not happen sometimes without even realizing it. The five main points in the video that stood out to me was that people in authority have more power than we realize and they can torture us and make us suffer from things and they find humor in it. For example what Hitler did to the Jews was cruel and usual but many followed him and did as he told them to do although it wasn't just and right. Another example would be slavery and how much power whites had over blacks at the time and how people stood around and watched blacks be oppressed although subconsciously they knew it wasn't right they just went along with who held the power. Another point that was made in the video was that people that are controlled by those with power need someone to put the blame on so they are not held responsible for the acts they commit. In the video the man that was told to increase the shock voltage was afraid of killing the man so he said he doesn't want the responsibility of this and the voice in the background responded and said "I am responsible for it" after he said that the man may have felt alright with continuing although he still showed a bit of hesitation he still went along with the authority figure. The third point made in the video was that people will go as far as authority tells them to go and sometimes we are just inherently obedient we do what we are told to do without asking why or insisting that someone else do it. The fourth point made in the video was there are times when we naturally obey someone even if they are telling us to do something that is blatantly wrong. We tend to go with whoever is in charge. Lastly a point that stood out to me was that the man continuously shocked the guy because someone told him to do it and when he was asked why he immediately responded and said "he told me to do it". There are many times in our lives where we shift the blame for things we do and we don't necessarily realize it until after the the situation is over. The article "The Five Faces Of Oppression"  revealed that there are many different types of oppression such as violence, exploitation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and marginalization which can also be referred to as power tactics as stated in chapter 5. The five main points brought out in the article was that violence is used to oppress people because scare tactics are used to intimidate people to do things that they do not want to do a perfect example of this is slavery, blacks were forced to be in the hot sun picking cotton, they were beaten, and abused, raped and sometimes even killed. They knew if they didn't do what they were supposed to do or if they talked back they were going to pay the consequences for their actions. The second point is that exploitation is the act of using something in an unjust and cruel manner, such as child labor. Children were used to do adult jobs in factories as a result many children lost limbs and many lost lives. Thirdly, cultural imperialism is the unequal relationships created in society and making this out to be appropriate. Fourth, marginalization is also considered social exclusion of individuals for example those with disabilities may be excluded from certain jobs or activities. Lastly, powerlessness is used to make societies individuals feel as if they have no say in the world and what happens within their community it beings about low self worth. These three things, "The Milgram Experiment", Chapter 5 "Power" and the article "The Five Faces Of Oppression" are all related because each piece has one main and relevant topic to society which is power. Power can sometimes be abused and mishandled based on the authority figures in charge.I believe that power lies within us and we have the ability to stand up and say no even if we are alone.