Beyond the political and legal foundations of power, the key question always remains: why does power attract so much? It is, someone has said, the most violent human passion, and it is, moreover, what accounts for the existence of the State; It is the argument of countless repressions, the hope of all politicians and the illusion of many naive people. This is the reason for servitude and some dogmas.

Power is behind the law. It is the shadow of countless speeches. The opponent is freedom and the argument that theories that seek to explain, and legitimize, that we must unconditionally cede spaces, possessions and freedom so that a group of individuals can coerce, induce and sanction. And that he can enjoy his endless vanity. And so to secure our future?

Lives, destinies and illusions are sacrificed in order to dominate others, so that the lives of millions of subjects are determined not by the will and freedom of each person, but by dictates and rules. History is largely a chronicle of power and resistance; It is a narrative of how disobedience is sanctioned, how submission is justified, and how all sorts of theories are constructed to explain the obvious: a few rule and the rest act unresponsive and at the behest of others.

The greatest effort of theorists was to find justification for the fact of command and to give people reasons so that they would not deviate from the scheme or give up the habit of obedience. The history of political doctrines is a story of the most improbable reasons invented to justify submission.

Power is behind the law. It is the shadow of countless speeches. He is an opponent of freedom…

Power is the greatest passion and it is the passion of almost everyone, because even though politicians are the ones who most obviously and often practice it, it is no less true that businessmen, intellectuals, churches, activists and other people strive for it, some without concealment and others hidden. under all kinds of excuses. It is fascinating that, viewed from a distance and with the rigor and objectivity that truth imposes, we understand that it is the engine of the world, the reason for the existence of empires, and at the same time the greatest danger for human beings. .common goods that have as a refuge only the precarious eaves of the Law, a somewhat diffuse concept of freedom and the idea of ​​dignity as a very personal and irrevocable heritage.

Totalitarian doctrines best embody and glorify the concept and function of power. They suggest that individuals would cede all their rights to the state and that it would be the state that would generously return something to us. Liberalism, on the other hand, holds that the irrevocable bearer of rights is man; that a limited state was established to serve and protect it, to preserve its rights and to give material content to freedoms.

Beyond all reasoning, power is so attractive because it is also a source of enrichment, unless the powerful practice unquestionable ethics. And that’s another topic. (OR)