Power

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notmartha
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Power

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Compare to Authority, also see Enable.


BIBLE


KJV References

“Power” in Old Testament
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The Companion Bible, E.W. Bullinger
172. THE SYNONYMOUS WORDS FOR "POWER", ETC.

1. dunamis = inherent power; the power of reproducing itself : from which we have Eng. dynamics, dynamo, &c. See Acts 1:8.

2. kratos = strength (as exerted); power put forth with effect and in government : from which we have the Eng. theocracy, government by God; aristocracy, government by the best; democracy, government by the people. The Greek enkrateia = mastery over one's self = self control, or having one's self reined in (from krateia, a rein). This (i.e. enkrateia) is the only word rendered "temperance", and occurs only in Acts 24:25. Gal 5:23. 2Pet 1:6.

3. ischus = strength (as an endowment), physical strength possessed. See, e.g. Mark 12:30.

4. energeia = energy; strength (No. 3 above) put forth from within in effectual operations. See, e.g. 2Thess. 2:9.

5. exousia = authority. or, delegated power; the liberty and right to put forth power. See, e.g. John 1:12.

6. arche = beginning; then, the chief rule or ruler. See Luke 12:11 (magistrates).

DEFINITIONS


Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
POW'ER, noun [The Latin has posse, possum, potes, potentia. The primary sense of the verb is to strain, to exert force.]

1. In a philosophical sense, the faculty of doing or performing any thing; the faculty of moving or of producing a change in something; ability or strength. A man raises his hand by his own power or by power moves another body. The exertion of power proceeds from the will, and in strictness, no being destitute of will or intelligence, can exert power power in man is active or speculative. Active power is that which moves the body; speculative power is that by which we see, judge, remember, or in general, by which we think.
Power may exist without exertion. We have power to speak when we are silent.
Power has been distinguished also into active and passive, the power of doing or moving, and the power of receiving impressions or of suffering. In strictness, passive power is an absurdity in terms. To say that gold has a power to be melted, is improper language, yet for want of a more appropriate word, power is often used in a passive sense, and is considered as two-fold; viz.as able to make or able to receive any change.

2. Force; animal strength; as the power of the arm, exerted in lifting, throwing or holding.

3. Force; strength; energy; as the power of the mind, of the imagination, of the fancy. He has not powers of genius adequate to the work.

4. Faculty of the mind, as manifested by a particular mode of operation; as the power of thinking, comparing and judging; the reasoning powers.

5. Ability, natural or moral. We say, a man has the power of doing good; his property gives him the power of relieving the distressed; or he has the power to persuade others to do good; or it is not in his power to pay his debts. The moral power of man is also his power of judging or discerning in moral subjects.

6. In mechanics, that which produces motion or force, or which may be applied to produce it. Thus the inclined plane is called a mechanical power as it produces motion, although this in reality depends on gravity. The wheel and axle, and the lever, are mechanical powers, as they may be applied to produce force. These powers are also called forces, and they are of two kinds, moving power and sustaining power

7. Force. The great power of the screw is of extensive use in compression. The power of steam is immense.

8. That quality in any natural body which produces a change or makes an impression on another body; as the power of medicine; the power of heat; the power of sound.

9. Force; strength; momentum; as the power of the wind, which propels a ship or overturns a building.

10. Influence; that which may move the mind; as the power of arguments or of persuasion.

11. Command; the right of governing, or actual government; dominion; rule, sway; authority. A large portion of Asia is under the power of the Russian emperor. The power of the British monarch is limited by law. The powers of government are legislative, executive, judicial, and ministerial.
Power is no blessing in itself, but when it is employed to protect the innocent.
Under this sense may be comprehended civil, political, ecclesiastical, and military power

12. A sovereign, whether emperor, king or governing prince or the legislature of a state; as the powers of Europe; the great powers; the smaller powers. In this sense, the state or nation governed seems to be included in the word power Great Britain is a great naval power

13. One invested with authority; a ruler; a civil magistrate. Romans 13:1.

14. Divinity; a celestial or invisible being or agent supposed to have dominion over some part of creation; as celestial powers; the powers of darkness.

15. That which has physical power; an army; a navy; a host; a military force.
Never such a power--
Was levied in the body of a land.

16. Legal authority; warrant; as a power of attorney; an agent invested with ample power The envoy has full powers to negotiate a treaty.

17. In arithmetic and algebra, the product arising from the multiplication of a number or quantity into itself; as, a cube is the third power; the biquadrate is the fourth power

18. In Scripture, right; privilege. John 1:12. 1 Corinthians 9:4.

19. Angels, good or bad. Colossians 1:11. Ephesians 6:10.

20. Violence, force; compulsion. Ezekiel 4:1.

21. Christ is called the power of God, as through him and his gospel, God displays his power and authority in ransoming and saving sinners. 1 Corinthians 1:18.

22. The powers of heaven may denote the celestial luminaries. Matthew 24:30.

23. Satan is said to have the power of death, as he introduced sin, the cause of death, temporal and eternal, and torments men with the feat of death and future misery.

24. In vulgar language, a large quantity; a great number; as a power of good things. [This is, I believe, obsolete, even among our common people.]

Power of attorney, authority given to a person to act for another.

Bouvier’s Dictionary of Law, 1856
POWER.

1. This is either inherent or derivative. The former is the right, ability, or faculty of doing something, without receiving that right, ability, or faculty from another. The people have the power to establish a form of government, or to change one already established. A father has the legal power to chastise his son; a master, his apprentice.

2. Derivative power, which is usually known, by the technical name of power, is an authority by which one person enables another to do an act for him. Powers of this kind were well known to the common law, and were divided into two sorts: naked powers or bare authorities, and powers coupled with an interest. There is a material difference between them. In the case of the former, if it be exceeded in the act done, it is entirely void; in the latter it is good for so much as is within the power, and void for the rest only.

3. Powers derived from, the doctrine of uses may be defined to be an authority, enabling a person, through the medium of the statute of uses, to dispose of an interest, vested either in himself or another person.

4. The New York Revised Statute's define a power to be an authority to do some act in relation to lands, or the creation of estates therein, or of charges thereon, which the owner granting or reserving such power might himself lawfully perform.

5. They are powers of revocation and appointment which are frequently inserted in conveyances which owe their effect to the statute of uses; when executed, the uses originally declared cease, and new uses immediately arise to the persons named in the appointment, to which uses the statute transfers the legal estate and possession.

6. Powers being found to be much more convenient than conditions, were generally introduced into family settlements. Although several of these powers are not usually called powers of revocation, such as powers of jointuring, leasing, and charging settled estates with the payment of money, yet all these are powers of revocation, for they operate as revocations, pro tanto, of the preceding estates. Powers of revocation and appointment may be reserved either to the original owners of the land or to strangers: hence the general division of powers into those which relate to the land, and those which are collateral to it.

7. Powers relating to the land are those given to some person having an interest in the land over which they are to be exercised. These again are subdivided into powers appendant and in gross.

8. A power appendant is where a person has an estate in land, with a power of revocation and appointment, the execution of which falls within the compass of his estate; as, where a tenant for life has a power of making leases in possession.

9. A power in gross is where a person has an estate in the land, with a power of appointment, the execution of which falls outof the compass of his estate, but, notwithstanding, is annexed in privity to it, and takes effect in the appointee, out of an interest vested in the appointer; for instance, where a tenant for life has a power of creating an estate, to commence after the determination of his own, such as to settle a jointure on his wife, or to create a term of years to commence after his death, these are called powers in gross, because the estate of the person to whom they are given, will not be affected by the execution of them.

10. Powers collateral, are those which are given to mere strangers, who have no interest in the laud: powers of sale and exchange given to trustees in a marriage settlement are of this kind. Vide, generally, Powell on Powers, assim; Sugden on Powers, passim; Cruise, Dig. tit. 32, ch. 13; Vin. Ab. h. t.; C om. Dig. Poiar; 1 Supp. to Ves. jr. 40, 92, 201, 307; 2 Id. 166, 200; 1 Vern. by Raithby, 406; 3 Stark. Ev. 1199; 4 Kent, Com. 309; 2 Lilly's Ab. 339; Whart. Dig. h. t. See 1 Story, Eq. Jur. §169, as to the execution of a power, and when equity will supply the defect of execution.

11. This classification of powers is admitted to be important only with reference to the ability of the donee to suspend, extinguish or merge the power. The general rule is that a power shall not be exercised in derogation of a prior grant by the appointer. But this whole division of powers has been condemned' as too artificial and arbitrary.

12. Powell divides powers into general and particular. powers. General powers are those to be exercised in favor of any person whom the appointer chooses. Particular powers are those which are to be exercised in favor of specific objects. 4 Kent, Com. 311, Vide, Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.; Mediate powers; Primary powers.

Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st edition, 1891
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The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
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Wex Legal Dictionary
Commerce Power

Congress has the power to regulate the channels and instrumentalities of interstate commerce. Channels refers to the highways, waterways, and air traffic of the country. Instrumentalities refers to cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes. Congress also has power to regulate activities that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

Plenary power

Complete power over a particular area with no limitations. This term is often used to describe the Commerce Power of Congress. Under the Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) Congress is granted full power over interstate commerce. The Court has found that states are not able to pass laws affecting interstate commerce without the permission of Congress.

Legislative power

The power of congress to make laws. Additionally, as an incident to that power, congress can conduct hearings and investigations, consider those matters that form the basis on which Congress may enact legislation, and perform other duties that are "necessary and proper" to the enacting legislation pursuant to Article I, Section I.

Admiralty and Maritime Power

In the case Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U.S. 205 (1917), the Supreme Court determined that the Necessary and Proper Clause grants to Congress complete and plenary power to fix and determine the maritime laws throughout the country.

Police powers

The fundamental right of a government to make all necessary laws. In the United States, state police power comes from the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which gives states the rights and powers "not delegated to the United States." States are thus granted the power to establish and enforce laws protecting the welfare, safety, and health of the public.

Enforcement Power

1. In general, the power of a government entity to enforce the law through investigations, arrests, and the ability to sue suspects on behalf of the public.
2. In constitutional law, the name for a provision that expressly authorizes Congress to enforce a constitutional amendment through appropriate legislation.

Ultra vires

Latin, meaning "beyond the powers." Describes actions taken by government bodies or corporations that exceed the scope of power given to them by laws or corporate charters. When referring to the acts of government bodies (e.g., legislatures), a constitution is most often the measuring stick of the proper scope of power.

Emergency Powers

The Constitution does not expressly grant the President additional war powers or other powers in times of national emergency. However, many scholars think that the Framers implied these powers because the structural design of the Executive Branch enables it to act faster than the Legislative Branch. Because the Constitution remains silent on the issue, the courts cannot grant the Executive Branch these powers when it tries to wield them. The courts will only recognize a right of the Executive Branch to use emergency powers if Congress has granted such powers to the President.
A claim of emergency powers was at the center of President Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus without Congressional approval in 1861. Lincoln claimed that the rebellion created an emergency that permitted him the extraordinary power of unilaterally suspending the writ. With Chief Justice Roger Taney sitting as judge, the Federal District Court of Maryland struck down the suspension in Ex Parte Merryman, although Lincoln ignored the order. 17 F. Cas. 144 (1861).
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt similarly invoked emergency powers when he issued Executive Order 9066 directing that all Japanese Americans residing on the West Coast be placed into internment camps during World War II. Because Congress had already declared war, the U.S. Supreme Court found Congress to have recognized an ongoing emergency. Consequently, the President by issuing the order had acted in accordance with Congress's expressed intent, which was to respond to the emergency of war. For this reason, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Executive Order 9066 in Korematsu v. United States as a constitutional exercise of Presidential Commander in Chief and emergency powers. 323 U.S. 214 (1944).
Harry Truman declared the use of emergency powers when he seized private steel mills that failed to produce steel because of a labor strike in 1952. With the Korean War ongoing, Truman asserted that he could not wage war successfully if the economy failed to provide him with the material resources necessary to keep the troops well-equipped. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, refused to buy the argument in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, voting 6-3 that neither Commander in Chief powers nor any claimed emergency powers gave the President the authority to unilaterally seize private property without Congressional legislation. 343 U.S. 579.
QUOTES

There are hundreds of quotes including the word “power” HERE.
Here are some:


George Orwell:
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn:
You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power - he's FREE again.
Lord Acton:
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi:
In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness but with qualities that are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning and cruelty.
Henry David Thoreau:
There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
John Locke:
The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.
George Mason:
Considering the natural lust for power so inherent in man, I fear the thirst of power will prevail to oppress the people.
Thomas Paine:
A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either.
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
Sir Francis Bacon:
It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty, or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man's self. Knowledge is power.
Paul Volcker:
It is a sobering fact that the prominence of central banks in this century has coincided with a general tendency towards more inflation, not less. f the overriding objective is price stability, we did better with the nineteenth-century gold standard and passive central banks, with currency boards, or even with ‘free banking.’ The truly unique power of a central bank, after all, is the power to create money, and ultimately the power to create is the power to destroy.


Milton Friedman:

The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited, if there is any feasible alternative. There is no need for such arbitrary power... Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men, [so] that mistakes - excusable or not - can have such far reaching effects, is a bad system. It is a bad system to believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic - this is the key political argument against an independent central bank


Albert Jay Nock:

Here is the Golden Rule of sound citizenship, the first and greatest lesson in the study of politics: You get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things FOR you carries with it the equivalent power to do things TO you.

Many now believe that with the rise of the totalitarian State the world has entered upon a new era of barbarism. It has not. The totalitarian State is only the State; the kind of thing it does is only what the State has always done with unfailing regularity, if it had the power to do it, wherever and whenever its own aggrandizement made that kind of thing expedient. Give any State like power hereafter, and put it in like circumstances, and it will do precisely the same kind of thing. The State will unfailingly aggrandize itself, if only it has the power, first at the expense of its own citizens, and then at the expense of anyone else in sight. It has always done so, and always will.

The superficial distinctions of Fascism, Bolshevism, Hitlerism, are the concern of journalists and publicists; the serious student sees in them only one root-idea of a complete conversion of social power into State power.


Noah Webster:

But what is tyranny? Or how can a free people be deprived of their liberties? Tyranny is the exercise of some power over a man, which is not warranted by law, or necessary for the public safety. A people can never be deprived of their liberties, while they retain in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the state.

Another source of power in government is a military force. But this, to be efficient, must be superior to any force that exists among the people, or which they can command; for otherwise this force would be annihilated, on the first exercise of acts of oppression. Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.


Justice William O. Douglas:

Those in power need checks and restraints lest they come to identify the common good for their own tastes and desires, and their continuation in office as essential to the preservation of the nation.

The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and…the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression and obedience.


Alexis de Tocqueville:

If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their character by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength. And for these reasons I can never willingly invest any number of my fellow creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them.

[W]henever the Legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience, and are left to the common Refuge, which God hath provided for all Men, against Force and Violence. Whensoever therefore the Legislative shall transgress this fundamental Rule of Society; and either by Ambition, Fear, Folly or Corruption, endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other an Absolute Power over the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of the People; By this breach of Trust they forfeit the Power, the People had put into their hands, for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty.


Justice Charles Evans Hughes:

Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency.


Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.:

But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts us absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many lifeless bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.


James Madison:

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

All men having power ought to be mistrusted.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the Constituents.


Eric Hoffer:

It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power -- power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.

People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of self.

Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay.

Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.


Robert F. Kennedy:

The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use -- of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.


Lysander Spooner:

No government knows any limits to its power except the endurance of the people.


John Adams:

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.


Alexander Hamilton:

In the general course of human nature, A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.


Rick Gaber:

Always remember the difference between economic power and political power: You can refuse to hire someone's services or buy his products in the private sector and go somewhere else instead. In the public sector, though, if you refuse to accept a politician's or bureaucrat's product or services you go to jail. Ultimately, after all, all regulations are observed and all taxes are paid at gunpoint. I believe those few who can't even see that have been short-sighted sheep, and I suggest they learn how to think conceptually, develop consistency and grasp principles soon.


Phillip J. Birmingham:

Whatever power you give to the good cops, goes to the bad ones, too. Never forget that.


Benjamin Franklin:

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.


Voltaire:

The tyranny of the many would be when one body takes over the rights of others, and then exercises its power to change the laws in its favor.

Liberty is not and cannot be anything but the power of doing what we will.


Thomas Jefferson:

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.

The constitutions of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property and freedom of the press.


Angelica Grimke:

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians.


Franklin D. Roosevelt, State of the Union Address, January 6, 1945

In the future world the misuse of power, as implied in the term "power politics," must not be a controlling factor in international relations. That is the heart of the principles to which we have subscribed. We cannot deny that power is a factor in world politics any more than we can deny its existence as a factor in national politics. But in a democratic world, as in a democratic Nation, power must be linked with responsibility, and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good.


Franklin D. Roosevelt, State of the Union Address, January 3, 1936

But the challenge faced by this Congress is more menacing than merely a return to the past--bad as that would be. Our resplendent economic autocracy does not want to return to that individualism of which they prate, even though the advantages under that system went to the ruthless and the strong. They realize that in thirty-four months we have built up new instruments of public power. In the hands of a people's Government this power is wholesome and proper. But in the hands of political puppets of an economic autocracy such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the people. Give them their way and they will take the course of every autocracy of the past--power for themselves, enslavement for the public.



MAXIMS

Argumentum á divisione est fortissimum in jure.
An argument arising from a division is most powerful in law.

Contemporanea expositio est optima et fortissima in lege.
A contemporaneous exposition is the best and most powerful in the law.

Derativa potestas non potest esse major primitiva.
The power which is derived cannot be greater than that from which it is derived.

Facta sunt potentiora verbis.
Facts are more powerful than words.

Firmior et potentior est operatio legis quam dispositio hominis.
The disposition of law is firmer and more powerful than the will of man.

Fortior et potentior est dispositio legis quam hominis.
The disposition of the law is stronger and more powerful than that of man.

Frustrà est potentia quae numcquam venit in actum.
The power which never comes to be exercised is vain.

Idem est facere, et nolle prohibere cum possis.
It is the same thing to do a thing as not to prohibit it when in your power.

In maximâ potentiâ minima licentia.
In the greater power is included the smaller license.

In praesentia majoris potestatis, minor potestas cessat.
In the presence of the superior power, the minor power ceases.

Non impedit clausula derogatoria, quo minus ab eadem potestate res dissolvantur a quibus constitutuntur.
A derogatory clause does not prevent things or acts from being dissolved by the same power, by which they were originally made.

Par in parem imperium non habet.
An equal has no power over an equal.

Patria potestas in pietate debet, non in atrocitate consistere.
Paternal power should consist in affection, not in atrocity.

Perpetua lex est, nullam legem humanum ac positivam perpetuam esse; et clausula quae abrogationem excludit initio non valet.
It is a perpetual law that no human or positive law can be perpetual; and a clause in a law which precludes the power of abrogation is void ab initio.

Potentia non est nisi ad bonum.
Power is not conferred, but for the public good.

Potentia debet sequi justiciam, non antecedere.
Power ought to follow, not to precede justice.

Potentia inutilis frustra est.
Useless power is vain.

Potestas strictè interpretatur.
Power should be strictly interpreted.

Postestas suprema seipsum dissolvare potest, ligare non potest.
Supreme power can dissolve, but cannot bind itself.

Scire leges, non hoc est verba eorum tenere, sed vim et potestatem.
To know the laws, is not to observe their mere words, but their force and power.

Sequi debet potentia justitiam, non praecedere.
Power should follow justice, not precede it.

Vana est illa potentia quae numquam venit in actum.
Vain is that power which is never brought into action.
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notmartha
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Re: Power

Post by notmartha »

We won’t drain the swamp of thieves until we drain the swamp of power.
Many who passionately pulled the proverbial lever for The Donald to be come The President did so because they basically wanted to, figuratively if not literally, blow up the DC establishment.

They wanted to drain the swamp.

Or so the slogan went, anyway.

But as with many things in general, and most things DC-specific, the devil is in the details, and those devilish details tend to be very slippery things. In this case, most of those marching under the swamp drainage advocacy banner seem to have bought into a fundamentally flawed notion as to what exactly has to be drained from the swamp in question in order for it to be restored to a place of at least relative peace and harmlessness.

The thing that has to be drained is power.

In a big way.

I would argue in a complete way.

The American DC-centered Roach Motel approach to massively centralized power has to go away.

Completely.

DC's power to create magical "money" out of thin air has to go away.

Completely.

DC's power to then use that black magic fiat currency to perpetually advance the ever-growing (and otherwise unsustainable) American Orwellian Welfare/Warfare/Security Super-State has to go away.

Completely.

DC's power to supervise the education/discipleship of our young in accordance with the official American religion of State-Supervised Polytheism has to go.

Completely.

DC's power (which is practically real however illegitimate it may be) to judicially redefine everything from marriage and family to boy and girl has to go away.

Completely.

With little to no power accrued in DC, few if any professional political thieves will bother to roost and plot there.

Remove State power to magically make fake money out of thin air and then use it to dominate every aspect of the culture and economy, and there will be nothing for tyrant wannabes to feed on.

It's just that simple.

The trouble is that most of those campaigning the loudest for swamp drainage in DC don't actually want much of the power to be drained. They want it to stay. They just want "their guys" to use it better in a classic Ring of Power rationalization sense.

They want public schools.

They want Social Security.

They want a massive military.

And they want the black magic economic system that props it all up, no matter how surely that system consigns their own children and grandchildren to an inescapable pit of ever-deepening debt bondage.

Why?

Why do they want the State to basically be Mommy and Daddy and God in practice where things like public schools, Social Security, and the Orwellian American Military/Security State are concerned?

Because 'Merica, that's why.

Because pride still trumps truth.

Because we're nowhere near repenting of our Christ-mocking approaches to law, economics, education, and civil government.

So God has given us The Swamp in judgment.

"We the People" will not have Him to rule over us in legislative, economic, and educational practice, so He has given us what we have, and completely deserve, in DC.

He has given us The Swamp.

Until people, families, and the church finally stand up and take their responsibilities back from the State, the Swamp will only continue to fester, reek, and grow in power.

We cannot wait for the swamp to be drained before we seize these responsibilities. It can't happen in that order. We first must reclaim our roles as people, families, and the church right here and right now, even as the swamp oozes on.

Only when we pursue true maturity and personal responsibility (aka "adulthood") apart from the dependence-producing, maturity-inhibiting "help" of the State, will we then find the freedom, liberty, peace, security, and prosperity that comes with true biblical adulthood.

The Swamp has little power over such adults.
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