Power / Pouvoir (Autorité)

                        We can all agree on the fact that Power is such a significant word with a versatile bank of meanings from the electricity from out wall outlets to the ability of human beings. How able are you to do something have have a major impact on others around you? Can power be good, bad, or both? The answer is yes—it can be both. Based on the article, "Five Faces of Oppression," we learn that power is, in term, the oppression. It touched base on slavery and how those enslaved were oppressed and were overpowered by their masters who had a broad sense of knowledge. These slaves could be categorized into those who knew they were slaves, those who didn't know they were slaves, and those who clearly thought they were not being oppressed and that their way of living was absolutely normal. Now, not only did it touch base on slavery but it also gave us a look at exploitation. The employment or profits gained by having an individual provide services and not paying fairly is exploitation. This type of situation is more common (nowadays) if that single person does not have the right documentation to work legally in a country, therefore, giving the employer the power of oppression. Not only does exploiting others oppress them, it creates a sense of fear in that person. Exploiting gives the employer the chance to destroy the person getting exploited. This article also broke down oppression into two categories--the least oppressed "haves" and the "have-not's" (2) who wind up getting exploited by the "haves."
                       Marginalization is a form of power. It is a process of (racial) exclusion and is seen in the United States with Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and Middle Eastern. Oppression in this form can be found in the education system and jobs. Most jobs, even though some pay equally, still marginalize  it's employees by paying slightly less to those of minority groups and if not paying then restricting the height of their career ladder. We see that wealth-holders have a significant amount of power when compared to the "have-not's." This becomes serious when the powerless believe that because they're powerless, their participation wouldn't matter. The reason? They feel they would not be heard. An example in the United States would be voting. "Powerlessness is the strongest form of oppression" (3). Speaking about the slaves once more, powerlessness prevented a lot of other slaves to be freed because they were aware of their situation but they were so marginalized, so exploited, very oppressed that it became their reality.
                   In this exercise I also watched "The Milgram Experiment." This short clip explored the world of violence and how it's not something that's out there in the real world just by nature but that violence is within us. A group of people were taken in to be part of an "experiment" unaware that it was an experiment inside an experiment. The main points I gathered from the video were belief--the belief in science to be a good thing in life to bring about positive changes in the human race has significant power. The people who were chosen to participate in the fictitious experiment were told to do a certain thing the authoritative figure was the scientist pressuring the participants to resume the experiment (administering electric shock to another person upon release of wrong answers). Tied to belief is ideology. The people who were participating had power because it was up to them to continue administering the electric shock to the subject being tested, whether or not to succumb to the indirect pressure mounted by the scientist and being told that it is very important to continue and give a potentially deadly dosage of 450 volts of electric shock, or choose to halt the experiment because they know what's morally right and wrong. It all came down to violence the key source of power. Whether we're aware or not, violence is always giving us power.
                 Violence referred in the book (114) by an image of the Egyptian police, using violence to disperse pro-democracy revolting people. I believe the significance of attaining power is violent. Many people fall into different categories and with it, their corresponding power, for example--a referee uses his authority to justify what is fair and what isn't during a game. Power can have positive and negative effects in the economy, with the government, and culture. The economic condition of one can impact others. I believe a terminology that can combine "The Milgram Experiment" with the reading, "Five Faces of Oppression" is Ideology because it becomes of second nature when an idea becomes reality, whether its factious or fictitious, non-violent or violent. No matter the circumstances, the outcomes, and effects, once you're told something you're most likely to believe (with lack of appropriate knowledge), that there becomes your reality, becoming powerful or powerless.