Tools Of Power And Authority

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What are power and authority? As stated in the Cambridge University dictionary, ‘Power – is the ability to control people and events’ and ‘Authority – is the moral or legal right or ability to control’. Due to these definitions, it means that someone who has power and authority is generally called a ruler. Power and authority are some of the most interesting topics related to philosophy. So based on all the books and stories of early philosophy, this topic is the most connecting theme for almost all stories, in each of these books, the power and authority have its own story, its consequences, and its meaning. From this all this information above, the relevant question appears: How to gain power and authority, and how to hold it out? Stories show us that to obtain and maintain power it is necessary to have your unique ways of ruling people, in other words – tools. In these books, rulers use different and specific tools to control the people. Tools for ruling were: in The Epic of Gilgamesh – intimidation with strength and fame, in the book The Bhagavad-Gita – discipline and manipulation, in the book Confessions of Augustine – faith and sanity, in The Baburnama – education and genealogy, in the Confucius and the Analects – wisdom and honor of traditions, in the Meditation of Marcus Aurelius – experience and patience.

To begin with Intimidation with strength and Fame in The Epic of Gilgamesh, which introduces the young and ardent man, Gilgamesh, who was a semi-god and king of the Uruk country. In the epic, Gilgamesh described as “Gilgamesh the tall, magnificent and terrible, who opened passes in the mountains, who dug Wells on the slopes of the uplands, and crossed the ocean, the wide Sea to the sunrise” (The Epic of Gilgamesh ) this tells us that Gilgamesh had incredible power in which he could conquer cities, move mountains and fight monsters “Then Gilgamesh like a butcher, brave and skillful, between the yoke of the horns and slaughter – spot [he trust in] his knife” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p52 ln 145, Tablet 5). For this reason, the power led Gilgamesh to the fact that he could maintain power over the country of Uruk and remain the king being in that young age, due to this power, Gilgamesh possessed complete freedom of action, that he could perform any actions since majority of Uruk folk were frightened to go against Gilgamesh’s will, “By day and by night his tyranny grows harsher, Gilgamesh [the guide of the teeming people!” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p3 ln 70, Tablet 1) it showed the fear of people upon his strength. But not only the strength led Gilgamesh to gain such great power, it was his incredible glory about his courage, that also influenced such authority. Gilgamesh was fearless, he was not afraid of anything “who the most glorious of fellows? Gilgamesh is the finest among men!” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p52 ln175 Tablet 5), his boundless courage, combined with his ambitions, led him wishing to kill the monster who was named as Humbaba, keeper of the forest living in the crave among other forest animals, Humbaba described as “This Humbaba [his voice is the Deluge] [his speech is fire] his breath is death” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p21 ln 280, Tablet 2), knowing that such legends go about this monster, Gilgamesh still did not fear and defeated the monster with his named brother Enkidu. This act glorified Gilgamesh as an incredibly strong and fearless ruler among people, despite this the fame of Gilgamesh reached even the gods, the beautiful goddess Ishtar, the daughter of great god Antu, came to Gilgamesh after his feet and offered herself to him as a wife “The goddess Ishtar [heard] these words, she [went up] to heaven in a furious rage” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p50 ln80, Tablet 6). Also, the phrase said by Gilgamesh’s brother Enkidu” where Gilgamesh is perfect in strength,

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like a wild bull lording it over the menfolk” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p9 ln 215, Tablet 1) once again proves that Gilgamesh was indeed strong and fearless. In general, Gilgamesh was a rather cruel ruler, using his power and glory as a tool for governing the folk. As you can see in this book, the author demonstrated the invaluable experience of controlling the Uruk by Gilgamesh, and his conclusions at the end of the story, which it follows that Gilgamesh eventually changed his mind about the methods of government, which implies that these tools that he used were not quite correct.

The tools for ruling people of Gilgamesh were good enough for him to maintain his power and authority for a long time, but on the other hand, there were more moral than physical tools for ruling, like discipline and manipulation. It was the tool of another ruler named Krishna from the book The Bhagavad-Gita. It tells about the ruler-god Krishna, who used such an approach as manipulation as a tool for control folk. Krishna taught the people and the warriors to come over to him if they have any questions, for as he said, ‘I have passed through many births and so have you: I know them all, but you do not, Arjuna’ (The Bhagavad-Gita, p50 ln5) Krishna exalted himself by speaking of his wisdom, which is an experienced appeal of his manipulation. Krishna said, ‘Though myself unborn, undying, the lord of creatures, I fashion nature, which is mine, and I come into being through my own magic'(The Bhagavad-Gita, p51 ln6) thereby he indicated his divine origin and greatness since the creation by Gods the humanity and nature, that is truly only God can do, pointing to these facts Krishna imposed a sense of duty on the soldiers and people saying that anyone who was born and exists on earth by default must pay his debt to Krishna and the Gods ‘Enriched by Sacrifice, the gods will give you the delights you desire'(The Bhagavad-Gita, p44 ln12), the imposition of debt is nothing more than the precise manipulation of the people. Krishna said ‘he is a thief who enjoys their gifts without giving to them in return’ (The Bhagavad-Gita, p45 ln13), a person was struck by God and a person must be faithful to God all his life – in general words, the manipulation of the people was exposed. Krishna convinced people that they should obey the orders of their ruler blindly, this can be viewed in the dialogue of Krishna and the warrior named Arjuna, who wondered why he has to serve Krishna, why he has to fight and deny his human needs ‘Always perform with detachment any action you must do: performing action with detachment, one achieves supreme gods’ (The Bhagavad-Gita, p45 ln19 ), in other words, Krishna answered to that man he should be disciplined and loyal, so this was the second instrument of Krishna’s ruling – discipline. It is possible to reveal the fact that separately from each other manipulation and discipline cannot have such power as they have in combination, Krishna taught the people a great way of thinking, convincing them absolutely and eternally serve to him. And those people who abandoned this philosophy are sinful, they commit theft since they do not give anything in return for the Gods who gave him life, and gave him food. Flowing out of these methods of government comes one ideal of man for Krishna – Yogi. Yogi, or people of discipline, are people who have come to that freedom of pure mind that Krishna wants everyone to achieve. People of Discipline are people who have left their desires, their opinions and themselves, so as soon as man renounces everything material, he reaches full contact with the mind, which makes him free. ‘Disciplining himself, his mind controlled, a man of discipline finds peace, the pure calm that exists in me’ (Bhagavad-Gita, p67 ln15) Therefore, conveying these views on philosophy, Krishna was able to remain, the supreme ruler, in whose power no one could doubt, this shows that moral instruments like manipulation and discipline were more successful instruments than physical ones.

Another moral instrument of government, that Krishna had, was the instrument of government from the book Confessions by Augustine – faith, and sanity. The book of Augustine can hardly be connected with the topic of power and authority, but after analyzing the book it can be emphasized that faith and sanity can also be considered to some extent as tools for government. Since, according to the author Augustine, the relationship of God and the man in the book of confession can be considered as a relation between the ruler and servant, “O Lord; it created new resolves and new desires in me” (Confessions, p32 ln 4.7), a person, thanks to his ruler, God, develops and achieves new goals, which means that in this case, God as the ruler honestly helps to a man to become better. The book Confessions of Augustine is closely related to the topic of religion and the Gods, also the book of The Bhagavad-Gita delivers about the relationship of a person with God – Krishna, but in the book Confessions, faith as a tool for ruling has some advantages to Krishna’s manipulation tool of government, if shortly faith in God has its limitations, while manipulation demands full obeying from every human being, without crossing the allowable limits, which is considered as a problem for Krishna’s manipulation, servants of Krishna often wonder why they should renounce their lives to serve him, whereas, in Augustine’s faith tool, a person is free to serving to God is on his own free will, because of which people who obey to a God have no doubts and questions for him. It follows that a person can save his own opinion and he is free to serve God not out of duty, but from a pure heart, which will bring the ruler much more benefit from each employee, in other words, can be interpreted as how a person can be sane, this is just the second tool in the book Confession of Augustine – sanity. Sincerely believing in God without pressure and the rights to its freedom, sanity and own opinion make these tools of government much better than forced and blinded serving absolutely for everyone like in Krishna’s manipulation and discipline. Augustine, for the most, was not a ruler, he was the one who was observing the ruling of others, analyzing it and making up his conclusions “when someone less fortunate hates someone who is happier” (Confessions, p39 ln 8.16). Augustine in his book wanted to convey and convince the reader in general terms the main idea that Skepticism as a philosophy is not certain, moreover to follow to faith in God and being sane, it can be concluded that these tools in the form of faith and sanity brought their results, after the choice of faith in God and the preservation of their sanity, people have become more civilized, which implies that faith and sanity as tools for ruling can be considered as good tools for government.

The opposite of tools like faith and sanity is the tools of ruler Baburnama who used as tools – his education and his genealogy. One of the main reasons why Baburnama gained that authoritarianism which he could gain is education. This education included many aspects, but want to highlight the attention that allowed us to give a more significant result. In the book reader can understand how Baburnama focuses his views on the details “The almonds, for which Kanibadam is named, are exceptional and are exported to Hormuz and Hindustan” (The Baburnama, p38) “On the western side of Kohak Hill was constructed a garden called Baghi-Maydan, in the middle of which was built a superb building called Chill Sutun” (The Baburnama, p86) from this examples, a reader can understand that thanks to the details of Baburnama they stand out precisely for this reason because it was because of the attentiveness that Baburnama noticed more than many. Also, the concept of knowledge included not only attentiveness but also the analysis that Baburnama carried out observing from the side that showed what conclusions can be drawn after certain actions thanks to this, Baburnama understood that the analysis of actions avoids problems that followed without analysis of actions. It can be said that it was the tool as an education that allowed achieving great goals, but also in the history of Baburnama, the genealogical relationship performed a big role, since it was Baburnama who was the blood of Tamerlane, thanks to this they recognized him as a person of special blood, which gave an advantage and greater positions in authorities. Baburnama in history remained as a great, intelligent and honest ruler, in his book Baburnama wanted to convey the story of his life from which it becomes clear that he used his education and pedigree connection with his ancestors as tools of his rule.

In addition to the tools of education and genealogy, we can mention the tools of the government of the ancient and wise philosopher Confucius, who in his book Analects teaches the respect of his origins, to the respect of parents “A young man is to be filial within his family and respectful outside it” (Analects, p45 ln 1:6). The tools for government, which can be drawn from the book of Analects by Confucius, are wisdom and honor of rituals. Confucius for a long time served to different Chinese respected rulers. Confucius was closely connected with power and authority. In Analects, the authors mainly wanted to convey and preserve the teachings of the great philosopher Confucius, due to the wisdom of Confucius, he had authority among the rulers and the Chinese people, which proves that wisdom is an instrument for the government. Confucius traveled around China, giving his views and teachings to various rulers of China, Confucius was convinced that following his advice and teachings, rulers can become much wiser and more powerful. Confucius mainly believed that wisdom is the best tool for ruling people and making the right decisions. In the word wisdom, Confucius implied several very important teachings for rulers, namely “What you do not want for yourself, do not do to others” (Analects, p55 ln 12:2) the meaning of this teaching is obvious, before harming someone you need to put yourself in the place of the victim – this is what Confucius considered to be wise. “Serving one’s ruler according to the fullness of ritual-people would consider this flattery” (Analects, p48 ln 3:18) this teaching says that “Let the ruler be the ruler, the servant to be the servant, father to be the father, son to be the son” (Source of Chinese Tradition), worthy submission is not a humiliating or a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of wisdom. In general, Confucius believed “Those who are clever in their words and pretentious in their appearance, yet are human, are few indeed” (Analects, p45 ln 1:3) he says that wisdom comes through long study and life experience, and not a sudden insight or creative beginning, following all these, Confucius teachings, one can correctly use wisdom as a tool for governing the people. “Through mastering oneself and returning to ritual one become human” (Analects, p55 ln 12:1) Confucius’ student Tse Kung wished to abandon the ritual of sacrificing sheep to which Confucius answered “You appreciate the lamb and I’m a rite” (Source of Chinese Tradition) which implies that a combination of rituals is the way to wisdom, this is the second important tool for government by the opinion of Confucius – the worship of rites or rituals. For the ruler, it is bad to not being respectful to rituals and does not appreciate traditions that have passed from generation to generation for many years. In general, the book of Analects conveys the teachings of Confucius, which he was convinced must be observed by any ruler. The rulers who used wisdom and respect of rites as an instrument for the ruling were much better against the rulers who did not use wisdom and treating of traditions.

As the philosophical sights of Confucius, Marcus Aurelius tools were also closely connected to philosophy. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor, but the most he was known for the part for his philosophical book Meditation. From the book Meditation, you can obtain two basic tools for government – experience, and patience. Also, the teachings from the book Meditation by Marcus Aurelius can be compared with the book of The Bhagavad-Gita, because in the book Meditation Marcus also says, that every person has his limitations. Marcus during his reign believed that patience and self-discipline are fundamentals to any great ruler. One of the most popular quotes of Marcus Aurelius “In man’s life his time is a mere instant” (Meditation, Book 2:17), which says that life is short and every moment of your life needs to be valued and not spent for nothing, which refers to his tool of government for patience and self-discipline, being self-disciplined, a person will not spend his life on various useless activities and habits. Marcus Aurelius was an opponent of such occupations as gluttony, adultery, and condemnation, because all these activities are a waste of time and contrary to patience and self-discipline, according to Marcus Aurelius who does not use patience and self-discipline cannot become a great ruler. “Do not waste the balance of life left to you in thoughts about other persons” (Meditation, Book 3:4), this again implies that a ruler should not waste his time listening to condemnations and not condemn by himself.” Remember how long you have been putting this off, how many times you have been given// and not used” (Meditation, Book 2:4), this phrase of Marcus Aurelius states that patients will lead your mind to the right decision, the mind of the ruler with enough effort and patience always leads to his weaknesses being advantages, another phrase that once again proves patience as an excellent tool for the ruler “No retreat offers someone more quiet and relaxation than that into his own mind” (Meditation, Book 4:3). Marcus Aurelius had extensive experience in ruling the Roman Empire; he left behind the book Meditation, which also imparted his teachings to his descendants for many generations, which implies his second tool for controlling people – experience. An experienced ruler will always be one step ahead of a ruler who does not have the experience if talking about this, it’s would be appropriate to take mythical ruler Gilgamesh, as the example of a young and inexperienced ruler, being young and not patient while pursuing immortality, Gilgamesh missed most of his life in vain. The reign of Marcus Aurelius led the Roman Empire to great success in conquering foreign territories and maintaining power in the Roman Empire. Marcus Aurelius in his book conveyed invaluable teachings to his descendants and after thousands of years, his teachings remain relevant. Marcus Aurelius in general words wanted to convey that, with the help of tools as patience and experience everyone can achieve his high goals.

After analyzing the entire book, readers can understand that for power and authoritarianism there are a large number of tools that can achieve great goals from education to attentiveness. Each book explained how power and authoritarianism can be achieved, and also showed examples that were well-cited and what can be expected from power and authoritarianism. It is the examples, lessons, and tips that allow us to give an approximate answer to the question of what kind of images can achieve certain results. After reading each book and analyzing it allows the reader to give an absentee answer to the question of power and authoritarianism. All these characters, from the books mentioned above, support not only to achieve results but also to become better since it is the purpose of tools for a person to grow better.

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