When I speak about the notion and dynamics of power, I’m not discussing the flow of current from a circuit of a switchboard, which helps in lighting a system up. I’m talking about the power which dictates our lives at the social, political, cultural and mental levels and whether this sort of power across all spheres tumbles from top to down with its own set of biases or whether or not all of it has been pre-determined by an unknown creator guiding the universe whose name we do know.

When we speak about power at the social and political level, we speak about institutions such as schools, universities, political parties, and the judiciary. The role of these institutions is to train, educate individuals, and meet the needs and demands of the majority. They are responsible for the functioning and structure of the society, and anyone who doesn’t fit within this power regime will be held guilty and punished. When the guilty is presented in court, he or she isn’t just asking the court to punish them according to the law, but they are also saying that whatever justice they seem to dole out, it is acceptable to them. This could similarly be compared to the scenario of prison, where the power regimes are demanding that you must “fit” within a system to live responsibly, but the so-called unfit in prison, what if they represent the true face of society? Similarly, in schools, when we are told that so-and-so paths lead to a decent life, and what if someone breaks that system? Take the example of Plato’s Republic, where he ought to banish poetry because he viewed the art form as a deception, and that logic must take the centre stage, but the East goes against this and proves that logic has its limitations. This could be compared to another allegory given by the great philosopher known as “ the cave” in which he describes three prisoners chained in a cave and the light coming from outside, casting shadows of objects on the walls of the caves, only for one of the prisoners to break from the chains, step out of the cave and realize that the shadows are not the real objects. What if the social and political system prevents us from seeing the true nature of humans? This could also be described more simply as how students are supposed to come up with their interpretation of texts rather than follow the rigidity of the author or the professor teaching those texts.

Culturally speaking, we could see bear witness to how an artificial power system destroyed its people historically, mentally, and socially by looking at the history of Pakistan. When Pakistan was formed, its founder, the late Muhammad Ali Jinnah, declared in Dhaka, then East Pakistan, currently Bangladesh, in 1948 that Urdu would be considered the national language of Pakistan and those who would not speak Urdu would be considered as traitors to the nation. This subsequently fell heavily on the Bengalis of East Pakistan as people in the West viewed the Bengalis as being part of a racially inferior culture. The Western part of the nation accepted the demand and permeated a sense of shame in all those who spoke in their mother tongue, such as Pashto, Sindhi, Punjabi etc. and banned the native culture of the land by not allowing any of the educational institutions to teach in the native languages and imposed Urdu instead. This led to mass rebellion in the Eastern part, which comprised mostly of Bengalis and their demand for the recognition of the Bengali language, which subsequently led to a mass protests and one of the largest genocides in the history of the world in 1971 and the independence and establishment of the nation of Bangladesh.

This could be considered from a mental aspect as well, where those who are mentally ill or researching in the name of science are considered as breaking the moral fabric of society. For example, earlier people who were mentally ill, were regarded as people who possessed insight or knowledge to traverse into the afterlife and subsequently the role of knowledge also comes into play where words such as “weird”, which previously meant someone who had magical powers but over the centuries the word transitioned into a different set of meaning and was used to describe someone with a set of odd traits. This also leads to an important set of questions: What is the history of reason? And what is the history of legality? This could further be elaborated by combining two different ideas, discourse analysis and historical fallacy. There have been numerous famous personalities who have been persecuted because of the statements that they gave. This led to the establishment of discourse analysis to understand how statements are formed by authority, what can be said and what cannot, and how they take up space in the material and social world in which they are being said. Historical fallacy describes how a layman who views any historical event from his perspective and from his time thinks that the people present within the historical event also viewed and made decisions from the same perspective. Thus, this leaves us to the understanding that discourse which was earlier banned from public because of its supposed nature to uproot the authority has been viewed as enlightening in today’s world, and how events which were made for the betterment of the world have now been viewed as catastrophic.

This could be described as a process executed by a group of people sitting in power to make people who preach the truth and try to enlighten the masses submit. This could be described as Marxism as well, where a few well-to-do people will make decisions for the masses, and they will eventually revolt against their decisions. This is referenced in George Orwell’s seminal work “ Animal Farm,” where he metaphorically describes political leaders as “pigs” ruling over the masses. Some centuries ago, a famous quote originated in ancient Rome, similar to George Orwell’s metaphor and interpretation given by Juvenal, saying, 

“Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”.

.    .    .