The Battered Island: Power, the Prison

"Controlling other people is a way of giving these perpetrators a sense of mastery over their environment," said Hamby. "It is also for them a sense of protection. They cannot be victimised themselves if they have complete control."

 

This article is about sexual predators.  Of course, it's not about sex - it's about control.  Within their basements, these men are unquestioned masters.  The entire world within those boxed walls is theirs to dominate.  The only things they have to fear lie beyond.

 

How is this different from political leaders who build walls around their nations and seek to exert complete mastery over the populaces within?  It isn't.  Leaders like this crave power, dread loss of control and increasingly shut out the world beyond to create bubbles of influence.  Then, they seek to dominate their people, holding themselves up to be more than they are.

Whether it's police or Opposition Parties, constituents or neighbours domestic or international, the dynamic is the same.  There's us vs. them and I'm the only protection from the Other.  Therefore you must obey me.
 

The problem is no man nor nation is an island.  The walls are artifices that cannot hold.  When they come down (and eventually, they must) every misdeed is laid bare.  That's when the whole, fearing the spread of a social cancer left untreated, passes judgment.  Power, ultimately, lies not with any one, but with the whole.

 

You can't keep the seas of time from breaking down your walls; tear them down and build bridges instead.