I completely agree with everything said, but I think some things need to be clarified to reach any stable conclusion, or not.

First, we have to be clear with what we define as power. This was a big issue in the argument I had. The other person said that power was the ability to exercise your willpower. Or in other words, whatever you want done gets done. Regardless of any opposition or anything in your way.

So the argument was that when someone/thing gets in the way of someone exercising their willpower, then that person is powerless.

And I didn’t agree with that – entirely.

Sure, technically, in this case you are “powerless”, but that then made me question if such situation was an appropriate case to base someone’s “power” or “powerlessness”.

Which leads me to the question, what determines our power? Does it go back to the answer I have above? Simply being able to exercise willpower?

Are we truly powerless if we’re unable to?

Are we basing our power on things that are really quite elementary?

Like you, I don’t have answers. But I do have nudges, and I’m big on spirituality and I felt nudged toward the notion that we are/can become truly powerful when we realize that nothing REAL can be taken away from us. Many of us define ourselves by things and what we have, so when someone stands in the way of us having – whether it be things or money – we, as well as the person I was debating with, feel powerless.

But to me, things aren’t real. They’re just that, things. They come and go, they were created, and they can be destroyed. I was at a loss of words when trying to explain that it doesn’t seem right to be to base our power on something that isn’t..absolute.

Anyhow, I went a bit off topic but still stayed in the field! It’s a really interesting thought and if you have any (more) ideas, please share!

Thanks for this awesome place for people to get uplifted and inspired by – something rare on the internet.