User:SteRos7/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/Seminar 1/Power

Classical influence on Modern Academia
Classics is an interdisciplinary field that studies Ancient Greek and Roman society through their literature. In the middle ages it was a key part of education and became the basis of the Renaissance, a major academic movement in 16th century Europe which sought to recreate the intellectual society of classical antiquity in contemporary Europe.

Classics has been considered the foundation for humanities subjects and was traditionally a core part of education for the elite of the western world. . It has had a major influence on modern academics, with Socrates serving as the foundation for western philosophy and other authors inspiring research in all aspects of the arts and sciences. This is evident in the sciences by the way new terms are derived from Latin or Greek and [https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/Greek_alphabet#:~:text=Because%20European%20mathematics%20is%20very,Greek%20alphabet%20in%20their%20work. Greek letters are often used in scientific notation.] In the arts, literary studies still analyse classical texts or works that they inspired, such as those of Shakespeare.

The classical background of modern academia has been considered problematic for two main reasons. Firstly, it is the product of a small section of the world geographically, and secondly the literature is purely the product of the senatorial class and so are the ideologies present within them. Despite the wide range of perspectives that may be present, this is dangerous because it represents such a small proportion of human society. Other Ancient civilisations had similarly intellectual cultures, for example the philosophical community of Ancient China, but they have not been given the same attention as the Greeks and Romans until recently. Another example is the texts of Ancient India, which were not respected until Sanskrit was found to be closely related to Latin.

European languages descended from Latin, and the Roman Empire spanned across most of Europe meaning the legacy of the culture and artefacts were accessible for Europeans. This explains Europe’s favour of Greco-Roman culture, however not why they disregard knowledge of other cultures. This might partially be due to xenophobic ideologies. The word barbarian comes from the Greek word ‘βάρβαρος’, meaning uncivilised. This term was used to refer to all who could not speak Greek. On top of this, the Greek word ‘logos’ represented ideas of language as well as rational thought, so not being able to speak Greek was easily associated with stupidity. Likewise, the Romans viewed everyone except themselves and the Greeks as Barbarians. This ideology, combined with the influence of Greco-Roman society in Europe, could be responsible for the reluctance to appreciate the knowledge of other cultures.

Power in History
The sentiment “history is written by the victors”, often attributed to Winston Churchill may hold up much significance when it comes to how we understand the knowledge generated in the academic discipline of history and how it can be used to direct a way of thinking. When knowledge is power, victors have the authority to omit, embellish and even rewrite the truth; the truth that ends up in being taught in an academic context. By controlling the frame in which history is told, the interpretation of historical events can be controlled, and therefore the truths found in historical data can be shaped and used accordingly to push one’s agenda as a form of strategy.

It is of common understanding that the Allies were more or less seen as good; liberating millions from Nazi concentration camps and ending the suffering that is the Second World War. However, because of this, the smaller-scale atrocities committed by Ally soldiers are often overlooked and forgotten. And this has made all the difference in the fact that the political world stage accepts that the big five allied countries are the ones with veto power, reflecting how history has legitimised their position to be in power even though France and the UK may have arguably lost some of its political and economic superiority.

Though on the contrary, history is also written by the losers. When looking at the Vietnam War, America most certainly did not win, yet the truth takes into consideration the accounts such as the one by Tom Smith, a US Marine, as well as accounts by Vietnamese citizens on the matter. Hence what we now know as the truth on the war is a construction from a conglomeration of perspectives. The issue then lies with events that lack sufficient historical evidence, leaving room for interpretation, and historians understand the limitations to this. Hence, no historian can be certain that their interpretation is the objective truth. Thus in a way, they have the power to retell events of the past; a past that we look back at to make sense of the present and plan our future.

Power in Filmmaking
Filmmaking is a discipline mixing art and impact. Indeed, this discipline has a great influence on people behaviour and actions. This discipline differs from social media or most news as it has the ability to pull audiences into an immersive experience. Through the films and the stories of real people, the audience can make connections about ideas or issues.

Moreover, filmmakers have the power to convey a message through their work or raise people awareness on several cultural subjects. They have the ability to create cultural moments and open opportunities for people to learn new topics. This discipline opens the space for change to happen in our society. Filmmaking is a powerful discipline as it allows cultural change by making people reflect on big social issues such as marriage equality, civil rights or racism. “Victim” is an example of film that acted as catalysts for change, this film deals with homophobia. “The Thin Blue Line is another example of one of the most impactful film as is it dealing with death penalties fiducial mistakes that reflect a reality in some countries.

Nowadays filmmakers are reaching beyond the offer of traditional distribution and think about impact, outreach and engagement. This discipline can influence people’s opinions and lead them to take actions or even change their habits. As films are accessible by everyone in the world and from every culture, this discipline holds a global influence.

Because it has a huge power on the entire world, it raises lots of discussions and debates. Several films are censored each year, as they are judged inappropriate by the ideas spread. Therefore, this discipline goes far beyond simple storytelling and making up stories but reflect our society and has a profound way of impacting the lives of people.

Power in Educational Institutions: Critical Pedagogy
Critical Pedagogy is an approach to education which seeks to transform relations of power, based on an understanding that educational institutions are embedded within large sociocultural realities of inequality and oppressive power relations. In this way, all education systems are in fact political ; there is no such thing as a neutral education. It is thus asserted that those who claim neutrality within education are also de-facto political, since they refrain from questioning political decisions which are made within educational institutions all the time. Many writers have also focused more on the expansion of managerialism within university structures and the corporatisation of higher education for job-making and profit, along with the culture of competitiveness and individualism. Critical Pedagogy is concerned with exposing how power works through the production and consumption of knowledge through educational practices and how educational institutions act as agents within society through the reproduction of relations and legitimation of ideologies which perpetuate unequal power relations .If 'de-politicised’, it is claimed that the roles of educational institutions are reduced and lack the ability to confront urgent problems within society. Education can be powerfully used to raise students awareness about the big social issues that we are surrounded by. However, this power constitutes an unequal power as not everyone has equal access to education, nor does everyone have the same levels of cultural capital to enable success within education systems.

Critical Pedagogy stems from Critical theory itself, and mostly draws from the work of Paulo Freire, influenced heavily by thinkers from the Frankfurt School. It has also been influenced by Gramsci’s notions of hegemony. In his book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, Freire distinguished between two models of education, the dominant ‘banking model’ of education, and what he referred to as problem-posing education. The banking model, in which students are seen as passive consumers of facts presented to them by teachers - who hold authority on knowledge - is seen as oppressive in the way that all the power to develop knowledge is held by the teacher. Problem-posing education, in contrast, seeks to cultivate critical consciousness within students through liberatory practices which enable them to develop a critical awareness of their own position within society, to understand how society has been constructed by humans in the interests of those with power, and that humans thus have the power to change it. It is also based on a social constructivist view of language which focuses on the relations between power and discourse, and the understanding that knowledge is never complete.

At the same time, critics have also focused on the need for public spheres, such as the university, to be reclaimed from the demands of the market, to be re-democratised in order to facilitate free spaces for such emancipatory education to occur.

Power in Journalism
Journalists have a great deal of power when it comes to influencing people’s views and perceptions. They provide us with the information to form our own opinions and make decisions on current issues in society. Without journalism, people would be ignorant.

However, journalism can become problematic when news is reported inaccurately. There are various principles and codes that are meant to be practiced by journalists. The Society of Professional Journalists list four principles: seek the truth and report it, minimise harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent. However, this is not always followed. Tabloid journalism, in particular, often prioritises getting clicks over journalistic objectivity. Media outlets have shown little remorse when making false accusations or misreporting. Take for instance, the accusations against Michael Jackson in which the media labelled him as a paedophile before he was found not guilty on 14 accounts by the jury assigned to his case. However, by then, the damage was done. When Michael Jackson is mentioned in passing, often it will be linked to him being a paedophile. That is the power of media and sensationalist headlines. On social media, 70% of users only read the headline of articles. At the time, all the outlets were rushing to report on these scandals with unconfirmed allegations in order to bring traffic and pump up their numbers. It is not deliberate misreporting in the news most of the time but rather it is due to trying to get the news out faster which leads to inaccuracies.

Another big issue when it comes to reporting is the media bias. There are many forms of bias. In the political landscape, publishers or outlets can often serve the interests of social groups, or corporations. In some countries there is government interference in the distribution of news. Propaganda and censorship can be used to further certain agendas and limit the news people get. The people who have control of the news are able to push agendas that will further their own self-interests. In countries such as the USA there have been steps taken by creating watchdog groups that find facts behind reporting, but these can also be biased themselves.

Finally, traditional journalism in general has been diminishing; news outlets have lost power when it comes to having a monopoly on news. Social media has granted the power to report to anybody who has the means. News is no longer spread through physical copies of newspapers, but online, so people can share the news they choose to if they so desire. This can be said to give more credibility to news sources that report accurately and are self-critical, improving the journalism landscape overall.

Power of the Fourth Estate
The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate#:~:text=The%20term%20Fourth%20Estate%20or,wields%20significant%20indirect%20social%20influence. fourth estate] refers to the press and the news media. The term “fourth estate” is an acknowledgement of the power and influence of the media on society. The press was coined the fourth estate as power is divided by the three estates in parliament, or in modern democracies three branches of government (legislative, executive, judiciary). However, the press is seen as the unofficial “fourth estate” as they play a key role in indirectly influencing political systems. Edmund Burke reportedly said that “there were three Estates … but in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than they all.”

In many democracies, a free press has been key in serving as an alternative objective source of information and acting as checks and balances for the government by keeping them accountable. The public did not hear about the My Lai Massacre, a massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians in a village in Vietnam in 1968, until it was reported by the press due to a tip that was acted on. Prior to the news reporting, the US Army downplayed the incident and kept it hidden from the public. The Washington Post was crucial in exposing Richard Nixon’s criminal activities in the Watergate scandal (1972-1974), leading to indictments of 40 administration officials and the eventual resignation of Nixon. In 2013, the press held a key role in revealing the National Security Agency (NSA)’s mass surveillance programs of Americans, which resulted in the USA Freedom Act, the most important surveillance reform bill since 1978, being passed in congress.

This demonstrates the power of the media in our society and its role and influence in society vis-à-vis other traditional powers (the state, corporations etc). The fourth estate has also been essential in calling out large corporates for corruption or malpractice (e.g. 1MDB Scandal), as well as powerful individuals for wrongdoing (e.g. Harvey Weinstein). These often lead to public outcry and reform. In recent times, there have been the rise of the “Fifth Estate”, which refers to citizen journalism in the era of social media. Although there have been benefits to this (e.g. #MeToo movement), which has led to positive social change, there has also been negative side effects such as the prevalence of fake news which has led to the distrust of mainstream media. This has caused a fall in power and influence of the fourth estate.

Power of Law
Classical sociologists, such as Karl Marx and Max Weber, perceived law as closely connected with social reality and power. . In their opinion, law was a fundamental part of social cohesion. Law, power and society are tightly bonded. Similarly, many legal thinkers, such as Plato and Immanuel Kant regarded law as intrinsically linked to social order, justice and the defence of the political community. .

Our daily life is dominated by the power of law. For example, in the United States, traffic law requires drivers to adhere to rules of the yield sign and the solid centre line. . The law is usually complied. The economics explanation for the compliance is that the government is ready to use legal sanctions to enforce such rules against anyone. By the economic logic, the legal sanctions make compliance cheaper than noncompliance and thus change the costs of behaviour. .

The fundamental source of the power of law is its legitimacy. According to Max Weber, a person's actions might be guided by "the belief in the existence of a legitimate order", so that "its violation would be abhorrent to his sense of duty". . Weber claimed that legitimacy is more stable as a source of order. According to him, "the most common form of legitimacy is the belief in legality, the compliance with enactments which are formally correct and which have been made in the accustomed manner." . This view is shared by many legal scholars. It is claimed that people are more likely to obey the law when they think the law is legitimate and fair. .

Law has expressive powers on top of the legal sanctions threatened on violators and the legitimacy the people deem in the authority making and enforcing the law. Firstly, the law possesses expressive power from its coordination function. .For example, the law is preferred by the drivers because they want to avoid collisions, which creates incentives for them to obey the law. .The law also gains expressive power from its information function. . It is usually believed that the governments make certain laws out of a reason. They enact the law for the public good and get advice on the law from the professionals. Therefore, it is reasonable for the public to act according to the law.

The Power of Philosophy in Influencing the Development of Law
Stoic philosophers pioneered the change from an irrational universe, where events where in the hands of Gods, into the rational one, ruled by an absolute rational law. These philosophical ideas had the power to change the early development of law dramatically. In an irrational universe it was men who could communicate with those Gods had power, but when the rational universe rhetoric was accepted the primary aim was how to distribute power fairly unto men who were now all equal under the rational universal law. Western law policies reflect this in their focus on the individual and the victims’ injury as their key aim is to maintain the just power distribution which is unbalanced when someone takes actions that injure others. The basis of contract rights, personal rights and private property rights were formed from Greek natural philosophy.

In modern day, philosophers hold power in The Supreme Court. The Court referenced Plato’s approval of abortion in Roe v Wade, not as authority on the issue, but as a way to legitimise the controversial argument. References to philosophers have increased in the last 20 years and are all used in controversial cases like gender issues. Using the rhetoric of philosophers in these cases provides the Court with a loophole in policy making, who are constitutionally restricted from using their own philosophical pondering.

Modern day philosophers also have power within policy making, for example the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain was spurred on dramatically by HLA Hart’s extension of J. S. Mill’s utilitarian philosophy.

Unlike the West, Chinese society didn’t have the purpose of power, but harmony, stemming from the philosophical fields of Taoism and [https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/confucianism/#:~:text=Confucianism%20is%20an%20ancient%20Chinese,Confucian%20philosopher%20after%20Confucius%20himself. Confucianism]. Law to establish and preserve universal harmony was key and can still be seen today in the lack of focus on the individual and their injuries. Actions that unsettled the harmony were against the law and focus on the victim getting justice would unsettle it even more, the victim was expected to change so that the perpetrator would not want to inflict injury anymore. Therefore, private law was almost non-existent in China.

The philosophy of Confucius had the biggest power in influencing Eastern law. The philosophy is based on the five relationships which entail five moral imperatives (based on rituals and conformity to accepted behaviour and morals under Confucius philosophy) through which five Confucian virtues come. He believed that if everyone followed this correct social/moral etiquette then the law would not need to be used. Confucian conducts were codified into the earliest legal code in china, the Tang code, and reemphasised in following codes like the Qing code where Confucian ideals applied through practical applications was emphasised e.g. the chastity of widows as virtuous. It was also included in Korean and Japanese law. This enshrined moral values of a specific philosophy in law so they became internalised into citizens.

The hierarchical relationships due to the five relationships were a big part of how justice was served in Eastern law. Social, political status and hierarchical distinctions in the family e.g. wife subordinate to husband, or son subordinate to father, affected if you were liable for punishment. The five relationships built into law took away individuality, citizens were defined only in relation to each other, this put a strong emphasis on the group, seen in property rights where individual property rights, only family ones existed. The five relationships were also justification for many women’s and children’s rights violations built into law.

Law works upon real life situations with specific facts and individuals, whereas philosophy searches for universal answers and tends to provide abstract concepts. These conflicts in frameworks raises the question of whether philosophy should have so much power within developing the legal system and policy making.

Power in International Relations: Not Just a Concept
Power, quite intuitively, is central to the study of international relations. Instead of looking at power as simply a concept within international relations, it is interesting to instead look at how the discipline’s own power structures have shaped it. Power within the discipline is a lot more tangible than in many others because theorists of international relations have great influence on the foreign policy decisions of world leaders. The United States, as the global hegemon, must be considered in any discussion of international relations; fittingly, we can observe the rise and fall of different schools of thought in the US corresponding with changes in their foreign policy.

In the post-Cold War period, there was a certain optimism in American thought spurred by their victory against the Soviet Union. Liberalism enjoyed a resurgence in international relations, emphasizing cooperation between states and rejecting the idea that power is the sole thing that drives the actions of states. The democratic peace theory became especially popular, stating that liberal democratic states would not go to war with each other. Some went even further. Francis Fukuyama famously and influentially posited that the world had reached ‘the end of history’ – that Western liberal democracy had proven to be the ‘final form of human government’ and would only continue to spread across the world. The promotion of democracy worldwide thus became an even more important part of the foreign policy of Clinton and Bush, being used to justify actions such as the Iraq War, though some argued that democracy generally took a backseat to more selfish, realist interests.

Liberalism is a school of thought that de-emphasizes the importance of states exercising power in favour of cooperation, but we see that it itself exerts power of a different form. Theorists and strategists who subscribed to the school of thought that was in vogue were able to influence leaders and affect the foreign policy of the entire US. Though not forceful, violent or coercive, this is nonetheless a very real kind of power with far-reaching impacts on fields such as economics, sociology and political science.

Yet as time went on, many foreign policy decisions in the name of democracy began to be widely considered unmitigated disasters. More importantly, the US, lacking a powerful rival for so long, found an upcoming one in China. Realism, a school of thought that emphasizes that states act in self-interest, began to see a resurgence, with similar influence on foreign policy decisions.

We can observe the ebb and flow of different schools of thought in American international relations as corresponding to the presence or lack of credible threats to American hegemony. It is clear that as much as ideas in the study of international relations influence power relations, power relations also influence how academics of the discipline think. Power, in its different forms, is constantly being exercised, especially in disciplines as concerned with power as international relations.

Power in Politics
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Power is ‘the amount of political control a person or group has in a country’. In Politics, Power is omni-present, and it is related to influence. By gaining influence near politicians and high placed people, you gain relations, and with relations you gain power. The power to have your say and to be respected and listened. For example, Biden built his relations and fame by being Barack Obama’s VP and with all his career as a senator before that. How does one properly gain power in Politics?

Most of the time, one has to start in their local communities, being involved in campaigns for example or joining government committees. But it isn’t sufficient: the individual seeking power has to take a stand for what he believes in, that’s how he/she will get the interest of the Grand public. Then, when one has joined a political party, he/she can run as a candidate for the leadership of the party, and if successful then run for the next election. However, campaigns cost a lot of money and to run for the election, the individual has to have some kind of sponsor, whether it is his own money, the party itself or private investors like the common people. Therefore, Political power is necessary accessible with money, but you need influence and respect or even admiration from the people in order to have votes and be elected. But all of this reflection works for a democratic political situation.

Another way to get power is without any legal mean. A coup can happen, mostly in underdeveloped countries, when an individual uses physical strength to take the power. Dictators base their power on fear and strength of their military force. As we can see with the actual terrorists’ attack in France at the moment, fear makes people vulnerable to false information and sometimes it creates panic. With panic and confusion, it is way easier to get to the power in a country. Dictatorship are usually way more complicated than this, with conspirations and plots, but this is roughly how to get power in Politics.