Emotional Power and Social Conditioning: Two Perspectives

Some thoughts I've had recently. More than a bit long. Would appreciate feedback.

 

Individuals are born with a river that allow amounts of raw emotional power to flow freely and effortlessly. This power and energy makes the world a fascinating place to live, because individuals are dynamic, passionate, engaged, and expressive.

 

However, in order to do cool things as a society, we need ways to cooperate and coordinate our understandings of the world and our efforts, and we need ways to continue those efforts across many different places and many different generations. So, society creates rules, expectations, etc, so make sure that everyone is on the same page.

 

This goes wrong when individuals see these social rules as the source of meaning and power. These rules can disconnect us from that raw river of power that flows through us. Thus, we grow up waiting to be told what to do, what to think is valuable, etc. When we are left in a position where we are independent, we are paralyzed, because we are waiting for others to tell us what to do. Our brains are engaged in these rules, rather than our souls and hearts and emotions being engaged in the world.

 

Reconnecting to that river of power and energy is obviously desirable. As people, we are meant to be connected that emotional energy, to be nourished by it. But we still have a need to coordinate with others and cooperate. In the real world, social rules tend to separate us from our power. What we need instead are ways to help us focus our power, not help us separate ourselves from our power.

 

Think about the comic book superheroes the X Men. The problem with a mutant who has special powers is either that (1) he is not in touch with his powers, he suppresses it, or (2) that he is very in touch with his power but has no control over it. Imagine Cyclops. If he were in touch with his power but could not control it, the beams he shot out of his eyes would destroy building and kill people.

 

What do the X Men do? Rather than hide from their power, and rather than letting their power go unchecked, they get training. And by being able to focus their power, it becomes more useful, more effective.

 

Our power is that energy that flows through us. We do not want to be cut off from it by social rules. But we do not want to be in touch with it in an out of control way, as it can alienate others. Instead, we want to learn to focus our unlimited river of passion so that it can serve us.

 

For example, it's social conditioning, of course, that we dress and communicate differently when we're at the bar than when we're at a funeral. However, in both cases, most people are cut off from their emotional power, and they simply follow what they think they should do at these places. These people are not expressive or engaging. However, take someone who is very in touch with his emotional power but does not have that power under his control: he may be expressive or engaging in ways that others are not receptive to.

 

If the expressive and engaged man learns to control his power, to be aware of the social rules that attempt to constrain individuals, he can find ways to convey his power through those conventions (if he chooses). Rather than separating him from his power, he will see social rules as potential channels through which to express his emotions, and he will see them as cues to what other people are receptive to. He understands that others are trapped by conditioning and shut off from their own power, so what they might be feeling or what they might be open to is narrow. He knows which social rules he can break, and which ones he can leverage to further express personality. He knows that using social conventions and rules can help him connect with others. He knows how to express himself through the conventions.

 

The powerful man is completely in touch with his emotions, and he expresses them in everything he does. He sees the context and conventions in which he resides not as things which separate him from his power, but as channels through which he can convey his power, or not, if he chooses. By accessing and refining the use of his emotional expression, it becomes a potent tool in his hands.