Principia Discordia > Think for Yourself, Schmuck!
Power Structure Architecture (Power Structure Engineering)
POFP:
--- Quote from: rong on December 09, 2021, 12:24:03 pm ---I don't mean to jack up your thread, and I apologize if you think that's what I'm trying to do. as a show of good will, anything that I may add later, I will do so by editing this post instead of creating a new one. that should help preserve the "flow"
we're obviously coming from different places (reality tunnels and what not) here, too.
I don't have much hope for any sort of success by any definition of the word in this arena, but it's fun to think about.
With that said, I was reading where you were writing about Fear being used to dominate. That certainly should come as no surprise. The purpose of a power structure presumably is control. I guess I have 2 take-aways. My apologies for not having organized my thoughts very well, but I only have a few more minutes here before I have to go do something else. Maybe I'll come back and edit this later?
Anyhow - I think it's pretty safe to assume that Power structures are not 100% deliberate. i think they can largely be attributed to basic survival instincts, greed, and, say, lack of moral fiber and/or fortitude. a lot of this behavior, i believe, is driven by the subconscious mind.
my other thought was there is also the law of unintended consequences. Getting back to using Fear as a method of control - no matter your thoughts and opinions about Covid, it is evident that it has provided a source of fear and has been exploited in efforts to control. The unintended consequence, i think is that, those in power did not expect that so many people, when faced with a "the world may end tomorrow and you will die" situation would accept this fate and pursue their own selfish interests instead of falling in lock step with "the program" - i can back up this claim somewhat in that people have been quitting their jobs in the largest numbers in history. i think this is reactionary to the fear stimulus - a sort of, i'm going to enjoy what life i have left as best i can instead of endure the jabs, masks and seemingly endless lockdowns.
i think throughout history, when the coercive fear stimulus is the loud side of a barrel of a gun, it's always a surprise how many choose the bullet instead of getting with the program.
--- End quote ---
1. No worries - This is a discussion thread for now. I can always create a new thread and sticky it for the officialized documentation.
2. You're absolutely right about unintentional imposition of Power, and C. Wright Mills goes into this at great length in almost every chapter because it's easy to forget when considering the more abstract implementations of power. I'll actually be talking about this fact as well in my next brain dump to establish the fundamentals. I have some modifications to make to the accepted Bases of Power to better explain mechanical features of Power, and this was actually part of my reasoning for doing so.
It's also important to understand that because Power is an Emergent Property of a relationship between two OR MORE things, composed of the difference in Potential for one to act on or impose will on another, it is possible for inaction and/or nihilism to be an expression of Power by way of letting external forces act on an entity when they would normally be circumvented by one's explicit action. This is why we can attribute responsibility and hold those accountable who do nothing. However, the extent of that accountability also depends on the context. One entity may not be aware of those External Forces, and may not have known to act to prevent them. But this may not always be relevant, especially when agreements are made to ensure that that entity is responsible for becoming aware of them.
POFP:
Snippets of Fundamental definitions and descriptions as they come to me, and as I feel that they have been modified/altered/interrogated enough to be formed on solid grounds:
Terminology:
- Power: The potential for an entity to alter the State of another.
- State: The collection of quantitative and qualitative properties that represent an entity.
- Influence: An abstract representation of State Change of an entity by another.
- Environment: Everything within an Entity's Influential Proximity
- Influential Proximity: The ease (Read: Energy Expenditure) with which an Entity can alter the State of, or have their State altered by an Entity.
- Corruption: The tendency for Entities to Stabilize their own States at any cost, including the act of destructively reducing the Stability of others.
To define Power Structure Architecture, we have to establish a fundamental understanding of Power itself - Not just as it relates to People in the Sociological Context, but also as it relates to the physical world (And of course, all abstractions, including the metaphysical, that are derived from it.). Power is an abstract, emergent property induced by the genesis of a relationship between two or more entities that is based on the potential for one or more to alter the State of others. Influence is the imposition, or realization of this Power, in which the State of one or more entities is changed by others, directly or indirectly.
You'll notice that this definition is a bit more broad than most others tend to agree with in the field of Sociology - Not so much as to be in conflict with them, in my view, but just enough to allow us to look at Power Relationships OUTSIDE of the Sociological Context, so that we can better understand how they might evolve WITHIN the Sociological Context. With the introduction of Computer Science and Information Systems in general (Which, while often dealing with the abstract, are still subject to physical Universal constraints.), this version of the Definition will come in handy. It sets us up to look at Power in a mechanical, quantifiable way that is governed by known Universal Laws.
A Power Structure is a Network of entities that are organized in such a way, that their individual potentials for Influence on each other and external entities organize themselves into a more abstract, and effective mechanism for Influence. Power Structure Architecture is the study of how these Power Structures naturally and artificially emerge from both organizations of entities, as well as from other Power Structures, through Aggregation and Inheritance. In the study of Software, which our Power Structure studies will occasionally mirror, Inheritance is the tendency for a component to naturally acquire the properties of its sub-components, and vice versa.
As you'll soon see, Power Structure Architecture, in a more general and philosophical sense, is the study of the relationships that govern how entities in an ever-cooling Universe store and expend energy to stabilize their own States, either directly through self-regulation, or indirectly by altering the States of other Entities in their Environments. This is the principle that, when combined with Influential Proximity Isolation (To the extent that the Influenced Entity is not able to, in-turn, Influence the Influencer.) and reduction of State-Change feedback, guides and drives Corruption. When Entities are able to impose Influence on others to increase their own stability without having subsequent de-stabilizing consequences on themselves, they will naturally, repetitively exert those Influences when favorable conditions manifest themselves. This principle applies both at the miniscule, molecular, mechanical level, as well as at the Sociological. This is why Corporations, after they become too stable and Powerful, begin making Environmentally destructive decisions with reckless abandon to increase profits, and why the (Especially U.S.) Corporate-State Complex is repeatedly responsible for inducing everything from ethno-genocide, to world-wide organizational Leader/Member assassination campaigns at ever-increasing rates, regardless of the effect it has on other Entities near the area of Influence. This practice differs significantly from the natural genesis of Ecosystems that Plants and Animals resided in before the existence of Mankind. The reason for this involves a complex interaction between the Emergence of more Abstract Forms of Power, and subsequently, the Emergence of Free Will.
POFP:
"Power Emerges from the relationships that govern how entities in an ever-cooling Universe store and expend energy to stabilize their own States, either directly through self-regulation, or indirectly by altering the States of other Entities in their Environments."
I'm going to call this the Stabilization (or Entropy Reversal) Theory of Power.
POFP:
--- Quote from: POFP on December 18, 2021, 08:53:47 pm ---"Power Emerges from the relationships that govern how entities in an ever-cooling Universe store and expend energy to stabilize their own States, either directly through self-regulation, or indirectly by altering the States of other Entities in their Environments."
I'm going to call this the Stabilization (or Entropy Reversal) Theory of Power.
--- End quote ---
This would not extend to the point that it implies lack of Free Will, of course, like a Pure Structuralist (Founded on exclusive Reductionism) may suggest. Free Will, while maybe being less frequent under Systems that place emphasis primarily on the Reward Systems of the brain, does exist, and it's the execution of Will Power that sometimes causes the greatest amounts of destabilization. In some cases, this destabilization is for the better, as Discordians who promote Constructive Discord may tell you. In Chemistry and Particle Physics, we learn that sometimes a little destabilization is required to exit one State, and enter a more stable one.
The difference between Corruption and Constructive Discord is that CD accounts for and prevents externalities, because it has a positive greater goal in mind. Corruption involves destabilization in benefit to its own stability.
POFP:
Just a forewarning: I've been diving pretty deep into ways to quantify (Or at least establish quantification Laws/Constraints for estimation/comparison of) Power, and in so doing am directly relating it to Physics/Thermodynamic concepts (Power as an aggregation of exergy motivated by negentropy. But don't worry, it's NOT like this hilarious bullshit: https://www.icr.org/article/albert-szent-gyorgyis-theory-syntropy-creationism/). At times, it will appear as if my study is:
- Ignoring the Personable/Social aspects of Power due to heavy emphasis on Structuralist descriptions
- Attempting to refute Free Will
So before we go that far I want to clarify these principles:
Attempting to understand Power Structures without the context of Thermodynamics and Information Theory is futile. Sociology does not sufficiently account for the underlying Forces and Constraints that guide the creation of Power Structures or their design - It only describes their Social Motivations and High-level Design at a level of abstraction that is merely statistical and philosophical, which is not enough to attribute accountability and indicate solutions to the problems they create.
Attempting to understand Power Structures without the context of Sociology and Class Struggle is pointless and evil. Any person pushing for a Structural View of Power that makes no reference to methodologies for Social Progress should be regarded as in favor of the current Power Paradigm (Best described by Elite Theory).
Determinacy, like most properties, is relative and sits on a spectrum related to Entropy. Just because the Universe tends toward Determinacy, does not mean all Systems within it tend toward Determinacy.
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