Methods of Maintaining Power

Methods of Maintaining Power

                Before I even start, I need to make it clear that I am going to approach the question, ‘How do those in power stay in power? ‘ in as unbiased of a way as I possibly can. I know that it is impossible for anyone to completely remove his own bias, but I will do my best to do so. Thus I am going to focus on how power structures are maintained and not talk about the actual issues that these systems create. And although there are plenty of historical examples, I will again avoid them. Luckily, the films we viewed this semester are good examples of numerous strategies of maintaining power and preventing change. Specifically, I will be focusing on the films The Big Boss, Raise the Red Lantern, Ikiru, and Mononoke Hime.

                Part of the problem of talking about things like power is that the language necessary to do so is incredibly problematic. To begin, much rhetoric on topics of power and freedom are filled with buzz words and loaded language. And, to make things worse, most people don’t even have the same definition, conception, or understanding of the words used in conversations on power (or on any serious topic, for that matter).

 The complexity of the world we live in makes it difficult to give a singular definition to anything, and power is no exception. The explanation I am about to give is just that: an explanation. There are more than one type of power, but my explanation should be good enough for the purposes of this essay. Power, generally speaking, is derived from freedom. Freedom is another one of those words that has many definitions and interpretations. Although I don’t agree with a lot of what he said, I will borrow from Anti-Dühring Fredrick Engels’s definition of freedom : “Freedom does not consist in any dreamt-of independence from natural laws, but in the knowledge of these laws, and in the possibility this gives of systematically making them work towards definite ends.” In other words, if you understand the environment you are in and you how you can use this understanding of the world to change said environment, you have freedom. Power is acting on this freedom and actually changing the world you are a part of. Everyone has power. But, some people have more power than others by limiting the freedom of others. By controlling or manipulating other people to your own ends instead of theirs, power can be gained and then kept.

In sum, power is utilizing your own freedom to change your environment. Power becomes a negative force when it is utilized to abolish or limit the freedom of others for the expansion of freedom (and thus a potential expansion of power) of the self.

This is not to say that power cannot to be used for mutual benefit. It can. When in numbers, the power of each individual stacks to create a larger power. Co-operation is the key to change. Communities and societies are just that: groups of co-operating individuals bringing about change. Sometimes, when those with more power abuse said power at the detriment of the rest of the community, the community’s collective power can be utilized to bring about change that is beneficial to the whole. However, this seizure of power is sometimes not favored by those at the top of the power structure. Thus, in order to protect their power and status, those in power often work to stop unauthorized co-operation.

This leads us back to our original question. How does one remain in power once they have power? Fear. Fear is an incredibly powerful motivator. We have all done ridiculous things out of fear. While what a person is afraid of is entirely unique to that person, that is not to say there is not a deeper cause of our fears that can be exploited.

In The Big Boss, Hsiao Mi, AKA “The Big Boss”, does just that. The Big Boss demonstrates a very simple technique that can be used in the preservation of power. He hurts people. But, that isn’t really what he is doing. He’s doing more than just hurting people - he is getting them to fear him. Most humans don’t just fear pain, they hate it. We go to great lengths to avoid it. Pain is a reminder of our mortality; it reminds us that we are going to die. So, when The Big Boss orders violence on others, he is invoking the fear of death. When The Big Boss shows off how much of a better fighter he is, he isn’t showing off how manly he is, or how great he is, or how fearless he is. No, The Big Boss is merely reminding everyone that he can kill them if he wants to. They live because he lets them live.

In one scene, we see The Big Boss shoots what appears to be either a hot ember or a dart into the breast of a young woman. And, the prostitute that spends the night with Cheng Chao-an, Bruce Lee’s character, explains that The Big Boss shoots the girls that stay with him when they do something ‘wrong’. Her naked breast was covered in black, circular scars. This wasn’t a show of power. The Big Boss was training these women like they were dogs. By using small amounts of pain, or even just the fear of that pain, The Big Boss maintained control over these women to a startling degree. He scarred them to remind them who is in charge, who they are subservient to.

                Of course, exploiting the fear of pain and death is not the only tactic that The Big Boss utilized throughout the course of the film. At one point, the workers of the ice factory decide to strike. So, the order went out to the boss’s thugs to break up this newly formed union. But, thanks to the determination of the workers and Cheng Chao-an’s fists, their pseudo-union survives, and Cheng becomes their unofficial leader. Violence has apparently failed for The Big Boss.

                So, the Big Boss gives in. But only a tiny bit. He doesn’t actually attempt to meet the worker’s demands. Instead he does two things. First, he offers piecemeal agreements to the workers. This action not only makes the workers feel like he is on their side, but it also take the wind out of their sails. With no one to be angry at, and a slight feeling of accomplishment of having gotten something done (even though it wasn’t at all close to what they were hoping would get done), the union weakens. Union organization slows.

                The second action that The Big Boss takes is to promote Cheng. On the outside, this appears like a great thing for the workers. Now, they have a person on the inside! They have someone to stand up for them in the closed door meetings they aren’t allowed into. But, that is not the reality. Instead, Cheng becomes the scapegoat for all the problems that the workers now face. If something doesn’t get done, it gets blamed on Cheng. He is, after all, their leader. But, how can Cheng represent the workers properly if he is no longer a worker? How can he be trusted by his former co-workers, now his underlings? This creates infighting. Co-operation stops. Their power dissipates. The union fails. Change is prevented. The power structure remains relatively unchanged for at least a little bit longer.

                Although The Big Boss showed how effective promoting leaders can be for breaking up co-operating groups, it has nothing on Raise the Red Lantern. Master Chen demonstrated to a chilling degree how privileges can separate communities. In Raise the Red Lantern there were numerous groups of people living, working, and interacting in the same space. However, there was a clearly defined hierarchy that is visible throughout the entire movie. On the bottom there are the maids, then the personal maids to the concubines, then the male workers who were most commonly seen lighting the lanterns, then the concubines, then the female children of the concubines, then the male children, and finally Master Chen himself. Each step up the ladder grants more and more privilege, until you get to Master Chen, the one with real, almost absolute power.

                Now, what makes this difficult is that, again, if ANY of the groups had united and stood their ground, the whole plot would have ground to a halt and real change would have been possible. But, this was not the case. Instead, each group competed within itself in the hope of achieving more power. Yan’er was probably not the only maid that was jealous of the concubines. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine even the older maids to have been in Yan’er’s shoes when they were younger. They all worked hard so they could keep their jobs at the compound. But, they also dreamt of the lavish lifestyle the concubines had. Although there wasn’t much focus on the male workers, there is no way they weren’t jealous of the Master’s four wives and massive wealth. This might be a difficult concept for some people, but not having to work is a privilege. Leisure was the symbolic red lantern for the servants of the compound.

                The concubines, on the other hand, fought not for leisure, but for control over their own lives. The women quarreled to see who could get the red lantern each night. Then, they would get special privileges, like being able to pick the next day’s meal, foot massages, and a night with the Master. Although it is tempting to say that the concubines had power in that they were able to pick their meals from time to time, they weren’t the ones who were making the ultimate decision. When it comes down to it, none of the concubines had any real control over who the Master spent the night with. Master Chen did. And, when he made that decision, it was he who had made the decision on which concubine got to pick the meal. In this context, it isn’t power because the wives have no ultimate say in anything. All they had were privileges that were formed by the hierarchy they were participating in.

                This hierarchy also did more than just create divisions between the different groups: it also prevented positive relationships from developing between these groups. If, like I had mentioned earlier, the groups had stopped chasing privileges, started co-operating, and more directly gone after what they wanted (an easier life for the workers, and autonomy for the concubines and children) massive change would have been possible. Hierarchy and authority prevents this sort of co-operation, as hierarchy and authority are unidirectional by nature. The people higher up don’t co-operate with those below; they tell those below them what to do. It is a privilege gained from being higher up in the ladder. Those below have to do what they are told or they risk the consequences. There is no compromise. There is following orders or disobeying orders. And, the bigger and more complex the hierarchy gets, these problems grow and become more complex as well.

                There is no hierarchy more complex than bureaucracy. Ikiru is a beautiful example of what a bureaucracy is and how it functions (or doesn’t function). Ikiru shows many of the problems that are found in Raise the Red Lantern. Each bureaucrat is in pursuit of a higher rank. With each promotion comes a multitude of small privileges: more money, a fancier title, a better seat, a private desk. Eventually, if one were to work their way to the top, they might even get an office! The pursuit of a career in such a fashion splits up those who are of the same title, as they are competing with each other for the next promotion.

                Ikiru also captures what makes bureaucracy such a good tool for maintaining power: bureaucracy’s is incapable of doing anything other than maintaining the status quo. With so many rules and loopholes to go along with the endless paperwork and the insufferable number of departments being ‘involved’ in even the smallest of projects, like building a park, it is impossible to really know how it works, especially with how strictly these rules are reinforced and followed. Sure, Watanabe got a park built, but it took him almost six months of non-stop effort. Not to mention, Watanabe knew what he was doing, knew what had to be done, and was entirely willing to risk his career on such a venture. As the ending of the film showed, very few others hold this same mentality.

                If Ikiru wasn’t capable of showing how difficult it is for a bureaucracy to change, consider this: Ikiru was based off of the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy. The book was first published in 1886, 66 years before Ikiru came out. It has been 61 years since Ikiru came out. Despite the story being that old, it is still extremely relevant to the world we live in. If that isn’t a testament to the unchanging nature of bureaucracy, then I don’t know what would be.

                Although hierarchy, bureaucracy, violence, fear, and the sectionalization of existing/potential communities have shown themselves to be effective in maintaining power structure, Mononoke Hime offers a radically different approach that is far less invasive in a physical sense as the above mentioned methods; it is perhaps far more invasive in a mental sense. Basically, what makes Mononoke Hime so different is that it isn’t representative of a system of control. Mononoke Hime is a system of control.

                Now, this is not to say that Mononoke Hime is propaganda, brainwashing, or something of that ilk. The film is a cultural reflection of the society we live in. Its themes are very much pro-power. It is pro-capitalism. It is pro-consumerist. It glorifies violence. It supports the conception of society not being possible without leaders. It is pro-industrialism.  Etc. As a reflection of the culture we live in, the film teaches and/or reinforces the values and priorities of our society, both good and bad. However, by normalizing these ideas and values to members of a society (particularly the young, but it can really happen to anyone) it prevents people from asking key questions about the way the world is set up, how it functions, and if our society needs to change. The more these questions are kept from the front of the minds of the members of a society, the more people consent to the world they live in. So although Mononoke Hime is not propaganda, it acts as though it was a piece of propaganda, and is thus a potential barrier to change.

                Each of the films we’ve watched in class are telling examples of how power functions and how it maintains itself. The examples I have brought up are not the end all be all of how power operates in the world we live in. But, I will say there is a pattern of sorts in the world we live in. There is no such thing as a simple power relationship. Each case is unique and infinitely complex. Each conflict has numerous different systems of power at play, and each conflict has numerous methods of control and power preservation. Some I have pointed out to you in this essay. Most I have not. But, if nothing else, exploitation and oppression demand hierarchies. Hierarchies are inherently unequal, and inequality is the breeding ground for all sorts of tragedies.

                But, don’t take my word for it. Look into this yourself. Think about it. Be observant and witness the power structures all around you. Watch them as they maintain themselves. Watch the schools you attend, the companies and corporations you support, and your own government as they all engage in various methods of maintaining their own power. Watch all over the world as it suffers from those with power who are desperate for more power and from those who are fighting tooth and nail from slipping away. This isn’t the cinema. This isn’t a game. People are dying.

                Unequal power affects every level of society. It affects your friends, your family, and your future kids if nothing changes. It even affects you. I guarantee it.