What comes to your mind when you hear the word POWER? Do you think of money? Political positions? Lands? Companies? Violence? Power as defined by Kenneth Waltz and Robert Dahl is the ability of A to make B do what A wants when B insist in doing something else. Indeed this is a fit definition of power. But what if B refuses and insists on doing something else? Would A result to violence in order for him to be followed?
Nowadays, people who attain power lose it once they result to violence. Like what Hannah Arendt argues, violence and power are two different things. One can attain power but if violence occurs, power can be erased. Take for example the case of the former president Ferdinand Marcos, he is a very smart and ambitious president but as the years go by, he used his power over the people and declared Martial Law. Even though he made a lot of projects to develop our country, his dictatorship towards the people provoked them to be against Marcos. Violence occurred during the Marcos regime because of the punishments people get from the authority. There are so many cases wherein some individuals disappeared or died without any explanation during his reign of presidency. The ruthless punishments from Marcos led the people to fight for freedom and democracy and put down Marcos. The EDSA Revolution was a mark that even the most powerful person in the country which is the President, can be ousted by the common people. This can be related to the terms “power-over” which is the power based on threat or the use of force and “power-with” which is a power that grows out of an ensemble of a person who empower one another when they decide to act.
Another significant event in the Philippine history is the Maguindanao Massacre. The family of the Ampatuan’s is a political clan who is one of the richest and most powerful families in Maguindanao. They used this power to retain their position as a public official and when they found out that they have a competition in a particular government position he did things to stop his opponent, Mangudadatu. But since Mangudadatu still wanted to run against one of the Ampatuan’s, he tried to kill the family of Mangudadatu along with the 32 media people who were with the Mangudadatus to witness an event. After few investigations, witnesses speak about the truth that the Ampatuans are behind this massacre. This event in the Philippine history proves that no matter how powerful a person or a clan is in a particular place, once he/she abuses her power and uses it in a way that another person can be hurt or manipulated, the power and the respect people have for them would soon be gone. Right now, almost all the Filipinos are against the Ampatuans because of the ruthless killings they’ve done to innocent people.
I liked the way you introduced your topic. Also, your examples were very much related to your topic, and it was strong enough to prove how violence can remove one's power.
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