By DONALD DeMARCO
It is our first and fundamental duty to use power responsibly. This basic ethical principle should be taught to students as soon as possible. It is the first thing they must learn in order to grow morally. We all have power and that power can be used for good or for ill. Being responsible means that our power is used for good.
Some years ago an All-Star team comprised of college football players from the East and from the West played a game at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. Proceeds of the affair went to provide medical care for disabled children. The motto of the game was “Strong legs run so that weak legs can walk.” This is a beautiful motto. The power of the strong was exercised for the benefit of the weak. It is a fine example of using power responsibly. The “strong” benefit by having the personal satisfaction that they have helped the weak. The weak benefit because they become stronger. It is a win-win situation, a game in which both “sides” are victorious.
In 1953, Columbia Pictures released The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando. The film is regarded as the original outlaw biker film. The star’s persona became a cultural icon of the fifties.
Motorcycles afforded a sense of power to their riders which was increased when their riders traveled in gangs. This power, however, was never put to good use. In one scene, a young woman is terrified when a group of bikers encircled her while blinding her with flashing lights. It was a scene that was repeated in life away from the camera, indicating how motion pictures can influence human behavior. Johnny Strabler, played by Marlon Brando, was seen as cool and imperturbable.
He and his comrades exulted in the feeling of power, and they flaunted it. Inevitably, they set in motion a chain of violence. All power contains a temptation. The bikers in the movie surrendered to that temptation without thinking, that is to say, not thinking that their power could be put to good use.
Having power is not something about which anyone should boast. In fact, it should confer a sense of humility. The purpose of power is to serve and the servant should accept his role with humility. Pope Gregory the Great adopted the title of “Servant of the servants of God” (Servus servorum dei). His power as Pope was put to good use by serving all those who serve God. The contrast between the All-Star football players and the bikers shows the former as representing a more attractive, more humanistic way of exercising power.
Exulting in a feeling of power may give a person a sense of invincibility. The reality, of course, is that no one is invincible. We may be immortal, but we are not invincible. And it is precisely because no one is invincible that we should direct our powers to helping others.
A physician has the power to heal or to harm. The Hippocratic Oath is perhaps the most widely known of Greek medical texts. It requires a new physician to swear that he will honor certain responsibilities that are inherent to his profession. The first of these responsibilities is: “Do no harm.” Included in the oath are the following words: “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.”
We are only too painfully aware how the responsibilities contained in the Hippocratic Oath are no longer honored. A physician may not be able to heal in a particular case, but he can always refrain from harming his patient. In other words, his power is always linked to his responsibility to serve.
Among the many powers that are at our disposal is the power of love. The power of love is contradicted by the love of power. Love promotes the good of the other. It does not glory in power for itself. By its very nature, it exists to serve. And responsibility flows from its very essence. In John Paul II’s book, Love and Responsibility, the now canonized saint makes the point that when love divorces itself from a sense of responsibility, it contradicts itself.
Love is not love that eschews responsibility. Love and responsibility go hand in hand. The former Pontiff, writing as Karol Wojtyla, concludes: “The greater the feeling of responsibility for the person the more true love there is.”
In stating that love is inseparable from a sense of responsibility is also to say that love is the renunciation of power over the other. God created human beings as free agents. In this regard, His act of creation was accompanied by a renunciation of power over them. He did not create puppets. He did not take away their freedom. Yet, in making man free, He permitted him to use power over his neighbor. God, being love, however, and creating man with the mandate to love, indicates that God wills that man not use power over others.
Man should likewise love others and refrain from using power over them. Love is a power, but when used responsibly, it is power for and not power over.
God has granted us power. It is our task to use power responsibly. In this notion we find the very sum and substance of the moral law.
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