Here we are in 2024. As many have said, it will be historical by many reasons, if not for the fact that it’s the year in Human History that more people will have ever voted in democratic elections. The Will of the People, as it were, has never been more important. It is also a pivotal moment, when we see the rising of extremist forces, to the left but mostly to the right, asserting their power and questioning democracy itself. Many philosophers, from Aristotle to Marx, from Nietzsche to Foucault, focused on the dynamics of power and power relations. But not getting into their discussions, let me make a point here.
Let me start by saying, paraphrasing Bion, that “Mind is an experience phenomenon”, meaning, grosso modo, that it is the way we experience reality. Imagine this simple scenario. A man and a woman, involved in a recent romantic relationship, go to dinner at a fine restaurant. In the end, the waiter brings the bill. Who will pay the bill? Whatever happens, it has a deep symbolic meaning in the relationship. Should the man pay the bill? Should the woman pay the bill? Should they go Dutch? Some years ago, who paid the bill seemed to assert dominance. It was a patriarchal move. Even if the woman paid the bill, it was a move to assert dominance over the man, but usually, it was the man who paid the bill showing his dominance. Today, the roles are mostly reversed. We can imagine a woman expecting a man to pay the bill – and so it’s a move of submission to do it, a move of service. We can also imagine a man expecting it. Or we can imagine a situation when they naturally, or even not so naturally, decide to go Dutch. Whatever happens, it designs a power dynamic in the relationship. But still, a fundamental problem needs to be solved – the bill must be paid. I suggest that the fact that even a slight power game is happening over it is a weakness in the system, shows a vulnerable point in the relationship. In an impossibly perfect relationship, the bill would be paid without any inference whatsoever over the power relations of the couple.
Now, we’re in an increasingly narcissistic society. We give an incredible amount of importance to our individual needs and wants. We want it good, and we want it now. We are plagued by an almost unbearable feeling of unsatisfaction, and we eagerly search to fill that void as if it could destroy us at any moment. I agree with Han that we live in a process of pornographic anxiety, always needing to consume and achieve and feel orgasm after orgasm. We constantly produce ourselves and we believe freedom is the assertion of our will. We need to show how happy and successful we are. We need to be happy and successful. Our whole lives are an assertion of our self. A positive movement of great importance. If we are not important, if we do not perform and impact the world, we seem to lose all meaning and our overall fulfillment.
On the other hand, Byung-Chul Han would tell us, this positioning means we do not have a place for the Other. We need to negate ourselves, to self-evacuate, to give way to the Other, or all we will have is a depressing narcissistic hole, where nothing is satisfied – as much as we look for completeness it will never be there, we’ll only find our imperfect selves, devoid of anything else.
What seems to me is that if we all abnegate our Self wholeheartedly and completely dedicate ourselves to the gift of the Other, we will be trapped in a situation where the Other herself will not be there – she’ll be abnegating herself to find us and not finding anything but abnegation. Love and Eros, it seems to me, is present in the dialectics. In the dialogue of positive and negative forces. In containing ourselves and asserting ourselves in harmonic successive moves. The coitus is only complete in the conjunction of both positive and negative poles, beyond the power struggle. Love happens only in the win-win or lose-lose positions, not in the win-lose, lose-win ones.
Even in a Domination-Submission relationship, the power-sharing is paramount. The submissive has the ultimate power of the Safe Word, being able to stop the situation at any moment. And thus, the power of the agreement – the power relinquished is voluntarily relinquished. The moment this agreement, this trust, is violated, the situation becomes one of torture and violence. It’s only when power is balanced, or void, that love makes sense.
That also seems to be the political dilemma we find ourselves in. Should we assert our needs and wants, strive for power, strive to satisfy our needs; or should we abnegate to the collective, fulfill our duties to the others, and complete our obligations to the system? Should we abnegate our power to a powerful man, a dear leader, a dictator; or to a Soviet-style State?
I would argue that we should not focus on the power struggle whatsoever. It’s inevitable, of course, but it shows a weakness in the system. It means we are not an impossibly perfect democracy.
In reality, democracy lives on dialectics. It lives on dialogue. It’s negotiating and improving step by step. Maturity is the ability to deal with frustration and manage uncertainty. Immaturity is the propensity to have it good and have it now. And this is where the center has an advantage in democracy. The center is boring, and imperfect, and heavy. But whereas the extremes are struggling for power, the center is focused on solving problems. Don’t get me wrong, both the extremes and the center are prone to corruption, mendacity, and promiscuity. But the extremes only win if they get power, and the center only wins if it solves problems. And the bill must be paid.
We live in a society dangerously playing with narcissistic feuds and individual needs. We were convinced we could only be happy if we were free from any chain, any imposition, any need of the Other. Be it the Big Other – society at large – or the small other – another person. Some would say that our freedom needs to stop where the freedom of the Other starts – and thus the Other is a limit, not an asset, not a source of wealth and value, not a partner in love, not a helping hand, but a liability, a supplier, a rival, and a problem. This is blind and petty. And sends us into a spiral of deeply crushing, depressing, and overwhelming dissatisfaction. We need to see the Other in a different way. In a balanced, both positive and negative, way. Otherwise, the power struggle might paralyze us and leave us morally bankrupt and war-torn. And in the end… the bill still must be paid.