DMB Digest: The Hunger of Power

And the tumultuous fall.

It’s rare that I watch a show amidst its buzz. I usually come late to television shows after all the hip people are long done with them. At the same time, I have a soft spot for Geopolitical thrillers. The age-old, human quest for empire fascinates me. Some refer to the concept as the “royal consciousness.” Some simply call it a lust for power. Whatever you label it, at the core of human governance there is, and always has been, a deep need to control others with power.

This quest for power is fresh on my mind after streaming a few episodes of Paramount’s second season of Lioness. I can’t recommend the show. It’s never uplifting, and rarely inspiring. Rather it takes the viewer on a bumpy ride filled with soul-crushing gut punches. Its outlook is typically bleak, and its occasional sermonizing is banal more often than provocative. Still, I find the possible geopolitical scenarios thought provoking enough to tag along.

In a recent episode, Morgan Freeman’s character delivered the most intriguing lines from the show to date as he discussed the current nature of our democracy. He leaned into President George W. Bush’s response to 9/11 as a gleaming example of galvanizing leadership while bemoaning the total lack of leadership demonstrated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is the quote in part:

“2,977 people died on 9/11 … and we came together. Over 1 million died in COVID. Almost tore us apart. The difference is leaders. And right now, we don’t have one…What got us to where we are today?”

Freeman’s character goes on to say he has some partial answers to his question, but for the most part the power of the question remains in the lack of a true answer. At the time I watched Freeman deliver the line, my mind instantly went to potential answers. I’m guessing many of you are doing the same right now. What got us to where we are today? Most of us have thoughts on the matter. People and/or institutions/and or technologies to blame.

The thing Freeman’s character chose to attach his north star to was singularly-focused government control. If only the powers-that-be could regain the upper hand—the crushing control they had only two decades ago. What happened? How did the authorities loose so much manipulative and binding power over the people?

The royal consciousness in America has splintered. The past regime is dying. The status quo has shattered into a dozen bickering competitors vying to become the new hero of a new regime. First, we have further to fall. The old rulers won’t release their power until every last bit has been eroded and torn down. This is the way of world powers. The way of empires. The way it will always be. They rise, and they fall.

The eternal truth that worldly power mongers always miss is that there is one form of power that never fades—the seed. The recently deceased Dallas Willard put it this way:

The seed is a power to organize reality.

I believe this to be an eternal truth. Seeds are humble little things. They fall into the soil and are spent in an effort to bring new life…and eventually more seeds. Each seed contains an entire map, all the specifications necessary for producing a plant. They know how to harness the energy of the earth and the sky. And depending on the seed, the blueprint is specific. One seed knows how to assemble all the elements into a watermelon plant. Another knows how to engender a pecan tree. Each seed organizes reality. Through fire, drought, and freezing temperatures.

While I will continue to be fascinated with the worldly endeavor to lord power over each other, this fascination is simply of an academic nature. I’ve long since known it to be a hollow and vapid quest. There is no gain to be had down that path. Violence begets more violence. There is no good to be found through evil. And subjugating others is always evil, no matter the rationale behind the matter. “America first” means all the other nations last. I can’t believe in such discrimination, and do not wish to embrace such prejudice.

And yet there remains the power of the seed. The same unchanging power through the rise and fall of every human empire. The power that all the characters ever cast in all the geopolitical thrillers have universally overlooked. The humble yet exponentially generative power of the seed. This is the only power I believe in, and the only form of power I seek.

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