Why ordinary people need to understand power

Why ordinary people need to understand power

Eric Liu

I'm a teacher and a practitioner of civics in America. Now, I will kindly ask those of

you who have just fallen asleep to please wake up. (Laughter) Why is it that the

very word

because

the

very

word

signifies

something

exceedingly

virtuous,

exceedingly

important, and exceedingly boring. Well, I think it's the responsibility of people

like us, people who show up for gatherings like this in person or online, in any

way

we

can,

to

make

civics

sexy

again,

as

sexy

as

it

was

during

the

American

Revolution, as sexy as it was during the Civil Rights Movement. And I believe the

way we make civics sexy again is to make explicitly about the teaching of power.

The way we do that, I believe, is at the level of the city.

This is what I want to talk about today, and I want to start by defining some terms

and

then

I

want

to

describe

the

scale

of

the

problem

I

think

we

face

and

then

suggest the ways that I believe cities can be the seat of the solution. So let me start

with

some

definitions.

By

civics,

I

simply

mean

the

art

of

being

a

pro-social,

problem-solving

contributor

in

a

self- governing

community.

Civics

is

the

art

of

citizenship,

what

Bill

Gates

Sr.

calls

simply

showing

up

for

life,

and

it

encompasses

three

things:

a

foundation

of

values,

an

understanding

of

the

systems that make the world go round, and a set of skills that allow you to pursue

goals and to have others join in that pursuit.

And that brings me to my definition of power, which is simply this: the capacity to

make others do what you would have them do. It sounds menacing, doesn't it? We

don't like to talk about power. We find it scary. We find it somehow evil. We feel

uncomfortable

naming

it.

In

the

culture

and

mythology

of

democracy,

power

resides with the people. Period. End of story. Any further inquiry not necessary

and

not

really

that

welcome.

Power

has

a

negative

moral

valence.

It

sounds

Machiavellian

inherently.

It

seems inherently evil.

But

in

fact

power

is

no more

inherently good or evil than fire or physics. It just is. And power governs how any

form

of

government

operates,

whether

a

democracy

or

a

dictatorship.

And

the

problem we face today, here in America in particular, but all around the world, is

that far too many people are profoundly illiterate in power

—

what it is, who has it,

how it operates, how it flows, what part of it is visible, what part of it is not, why

some people have it, why that's

compounded. And as a result of this

illiteracy,

those

few

who

do

understand

how

power

operates

in

civic

life,

those

who

understand how a bill becomes a law, yes, but also how a friendship becomes a

subsidy, or how a bias becomes a policy, or how a slogan becomes a movement,

the

people

who

understand

those

things

wielddisproportionate

influence,

and

they're perfectly happy to fill the vacuum created by the ignorance of the great

majority.

This is why it is so fundamental for us right now to grab hold of this idea of power

and

to

democratize

it.

One

of

the

things

that

is

so

profoundly

exciting

and

challenging about this moment is that as a result of this power illiteracy that is so

pervasive,

there

is

a

concentration

of

knowledge,

of

understanding,

of

clout.

I

mean, think about it: How does a friendship become a subsidy? Seamlessly, when

a senior government official decides to leave government and become a lobbyist

for a private interest and convert his or her relationships into capital for their new

masters.

How

does

a

bias

become

a

policy?

Insidiously,

just

the

way

that

stop-and-frisk, for instance, became over time a bureaucratic numbers game. How

does

a

slogan

become

a

movement?

Virally,

in

the

way

that

the

Tea

Party,

for

instance,

was

able

to

take

the

Tread

on

Me

flag

from

the

American

Revolution, or how, on the other side, a band of activists could take a magazine

headline,

The thing is, though, most people aren't looking for and don't want to see these

realities. So much of this ignorance, this civic illiteracy, is willful. There are some

millennials, for instance, who think the whole business is just sordid. They don't

want to have anything to do with politics. They'd rather just opt out and engage in

volunteerism. There are some techies out there who believe that the cure-all for

any

power

imbalance

or

power

abuse

is

simply

more

data,

more

transparency.

There are some on the left who think power resides only with corporations, and

some

on

the

right

who

think

power

resides

only

with

government,

each

side

blinded

by

their

selective

outrage.

There

are

the

naive

who

believe

that

good

things just happen and the cynical who believe that bad things just happen, the

fortunate

and

unfortunate

alike

who

think

that

their

lot

is

simply

what

they

deserve

rather

than

the

eminently

alterable

result

of

a

prior

arrangement,

an

inherited allocation, of power.

As a result of all of this creeping fatalism in public life, we here, particularly in

America today, have depressingly low levels of civic knowledge, civic engagement,

participation,

awareness.

The

whole

business

of

politics

has

been

effectively

subcontracted

out

to

a

band

of

professionals,

money

people,

outreach

people,

message people, research people. The rest of us are meant to feel like amateurs in

the

sense

of

suckers.

We

become

demotivated

to

learn

more

about

how

things

work. We begin to opt out.

Well,

this

problem,

this

challenge,

is

a

thing

that

we must now

confront,

and I

believe that when you have this kind of disengagement, this willful ignorance, it

becomes both a cause and a consequence of this concentration of opportunity of

wealth

and

clout

that

I

was

describing

a

moment

ago,

this

profound

civic

inequality. This is why it is so important in our time right now to reimagine civics

as the teaching of power. Perhaps it's never been more important at any time in

our lifetimes. If people don't learn power, people don't wake up, and if they don't

wake up, they get left out.

Now, part of the art of practicing power means being awake and having a voice,