Nick Kristof argues that privileged liberals should avoid demeaning Trump supporters as a matter of political strategy. Here, I discuss how liberals and Trump supporters tend to demean each other because each side feels politically disempowered—and I compare them to the high-stakes conflict of Israel/Gaza as well as a relatively low-stakes conflict in the field of psychology.
Showing warmth alongside competence can help a woman (in particular) gain power.
The crumbling of the 20-year US effort in Afghanistan, in a sudden collapse, illustrates the dynamics of coercive power in a heartbreaking way.
A scene in the BBC drama Time shows a restorative justice meeting between a convicted murderer and his victim’s parents; it ends with the mother declaring that, because of the motive, the crime is ‘unforgiveable.’ This judgment reflects a gap between her dignity-culture logic and his honor logic.
Are there two types (or faces) of power? Is there a lifecycle whereby power changes from one form to another over time? I propose that power has two aspects, always inherently linked; and subject to rotational inertia so that one aspect or the other may be foregrounded for some time…but it will inevitably recede and the other come to the fore.