In order to dismantle the quest for power, one must dismantle their ego, their sense of specialness or leadership. If humanity wanted to take this task seriously, theoretically we could have no leaders. It would require us to be a nation of no-leaders. Leadership intrinsically implies that there are both leaders and followers. Followers give leaders power and enable them to use followers as pawns. To dismantle power, one must restrain from being a leader or a follower. This is only possible if, as Jimi Hendrix once stated, “the power of love overcomes the love of power.”
Power is seductive. We’ve all felt it. Power fills you with confidence and adrenaline. It exalts you with a kind of specialness that corrupts and blinds you to your own faults as well as another’s experience. Power manifests itself in wealth and fame. The only way to dismantle it would be to share it amongst others. If we become wealthy, we must humble ourselves, sharing the majority of our wealth with the most needy. If we become famous, we must use that fame to propel rich ideas and other human beings. Dismantling power requires humility and the understanding that no human being is better nor worse than another.
An essential aspect of power is manipulation. If we were to embark upon the path of dismantling power, one would have to restrain from manipulating others and cease to be manipulated. This requires an extensive look at our psyche that tends to manipulate even ourselves. If we may peer into our ego, our shadow, our unconscious thought patterns, we will find the most troubling parts of ourselves. If we face the power dynamics within, we may change them without.