The abuse of power comes in many forms. It is pervasive across most societies.

  • There is the power of wealth to influence political processes to retain the economic status quo, despite the increasing dysfunction of the wealth disparity.
  • There is the power of violence to impose a particular control over others, whether that be at a personal level, such as domestic violence, or the intimidation of an army invading.
  • There is the power of brainwashing – the use of fallacies and lies to confirm biases or notions of superiority or, by repetition, to make others believe that wrong must be right.

But it is not a lost cause. We have the power to change attitudes and cultures. History has many examples. But it does need leadership, from each of us as individual role-models, as well as at the national and international level.

Part of the answer is education – enabling us all to be critical thinkers, to see through fallacies so that we can present arguments based on evidence and logic rather than fantasy or self-affirming belief. Part of the answer is people power. History has a catalogue of the powerful being overthrown by the united action of the people at the ballot box and even, on occasion, by revolution.

My next book, The Most Avoided Questions, asks Why is it so? It lays out testable evidence to challenge the unquestioning acceptance of the current trajectory of unrestricted growth on a finite planet.

It will be available in late November 2017 on Amazon and as an eBook on Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iBooks. Thank you for your patience!

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