Power Doesn’t Have to be Corrupt
April 2, 2026
You’ve probably heard that these are unprecedented times. You’ve probably heard that democracy is in danger. We’ve all see terrible things take place and felt powerless to stop it. It hurts. Especially when our hearts and our values call us to stop the harm and we don’t know how.
“Power does not have to be synonymous with domination, destruction and suppression: power can mean freedom, survival, and choice. ”
Power is an uncomfortable idea for some, and we understand why: many of the worst things we can think of have been done for power - whether to gain more of it or because someone has too much of it. Power has been tied to fear, shame, and cruelty. So we distance ourselves. But in these times when power has been defined by pain and abuse, we need a new approach for new results. We need to turn away from power over other people or even power within ourselves. It’s time for power WITH each other. What if we reimagined social power: not as a weapon to wield or a resource to fight over, but as energy to harness? Imagine water wheels milling grain and fire heating our ovens. When human beings decided to work together to guide and share sources of energy as communities, we invented aqueducts and furnaces, lit up whole neighborhoods. Power does not have to be synonymous with domination, destruction and suppression: power can mean freedom, survival, and choice.
It all depends on who’s got it and if they are willing to carry it WITH everyone, FOR everyone.
When we use our knowledge, more and more of us learn that while the bad actors and their tools may be new, fascism and racist capitalism are not. We learn we have activist ancestors who fought and won, leaving us maps of possibility. We learn to read the maps.
When we build community, we multiply grace and empathy, sorely needed during these times where so much pain has been inflicted. We develop relationships and earn trust among co-strugglers. We care, share, and protect our connections.
When we act collectively, we become a conduit for power that harnesses and holds more energy than any one of us or any one of the despots could alone. We become a horse to a carriage. Steam to a train. Satellite to data. We become able to change the game and rewrite the story of motion.
We can be the horsepower.
We can be the steam.
We can be the satellite.
We can use power to care for each other. Full stop.
Toward collective liberation,
Atena
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