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About recognition and power

When Trump acts as he does, impulsively and timidly, it is in the desire for recognition.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Children seek recognition from their parents, and receive support from parents and teachers as they achieve results in play and work, through cross-border experiences and when they understand the consequences of their actions, eventually in all extremes, and show ability, courage and willingness to understand the environment and the world in a realistic and sensible way.

All human relationships are in one way or another about power relations. Parents appear as authorities. When we look at political and ideological relations, not to mention theological ones, and at private relations or relations between nations, it is always about recognition and power. The same goes for love: We fall in love because we see and are seen by another, who recognizes us back. The most important act of love is to ignore the other's mistakes, said psychologist Ingjald Nissen: that one recognizes the other in one's otherness. Insight into the weakness and vulnerability of others gives rise to power and abuse of power.

Psychologist Ingjald Nissen writes that the most important act of love is to ignore the other's mistakes. Insight into the weakness and vulnerability of others gives rise to power and abuse of power.

The being of power. What exactly is power? Hobbes, Nietzsche and Foucault have elaborated on the concept and looked at the mechanisms of the coarse, suppressive exercise of power. Hegel regards power / recognition as an endeavor to understand himself in the world – and when Trump acts as he does, spontaneously and unthinkingly, he eagerly shows us that he is a man who does just that. He acts on the desire to be recognized.

Power is to give and to take – and in the imbalance between these two lies the seed of conflict. The nation that is not recognized is nourished by fear of oppression, loss of territory and privilege – yes, further loss of recognition and hence loss of even more respect and power. What one wins, the other loses. In this way, the weaker nation easily becomes the victim of the stronger abuse.

Personal recognition is self-esteem, which in turn can be the entrance to self-understanding. And a healthy self-insight provides mental tools for analysis and self-criticism.

Putin and Trump. We know this kind of power struggle from the Cold War, where threats and escalation of weapons arsenals were allowed to develop in all their horror. Trump, an unscrupulous businessman and media star, and Putin, a nationalist oligarch with control over the media, both propagandize a powerful man with unshakable self-awareness, strangely recognized by the people they are set to protect, precisely because of his confident appearance and room for maneuver to almost whatever it may be to maintain the fort. This is how we all lean towards recognition, either by efforts at work and in private, but also by associating with people with social prestige – those who are already recognized. We are recognized by the recognized.

The person who acknowledges should preferably not be socially and culturally committed, but neutral and without ties, so that the recognition is as free and non-binding as possible. The recognition becomes a "prize" – whether it is the individual or the collective's such. How is it possible to achieve this "prize", without conflict or trampling on anyone, without the use of physical or psychological violence, whether it is to gain territories, power in a relationship or as a grip for a nation's security?

The significance of recognition. Recognition is given by the other. Recognition gives self-awareness. A child who is recognized for a new self-insight grows in the form of self-awareness. It is elementary positive to recognize other people's companies, because that way you become self-aware and confident. It benefits one's ethical "habitat" to give recognition, because in a mutual relationship it illuminates both parties. And it costs so little.

The personal recognition is self-esteem, which in turn can be the entrance to self-insight. And a healthy self-insight provides mental tools for analysis and self-criticism. Everyone feels they have a certain value in themselves, and if you are treated as if you were worthless, fear and rage arise. Something similar happens when you do not live up to your own values: You feel ashamed. On the contrary, one experiences pride.

Democracy and knowledge. Humanism in a democracy protects the individual's value and the rights the individual must have in order to function and function optimally. We are currently experiencing many different types of violence against these values: neo-Nazis in the streets, the use of ruling techniques in social media, conditions where deep knowledge of cruel means of repression is used, which hits the individual first in isolation, and then the many. Political dark forces are nurtured by the individual's lack of insight, and will eventually destructively dominate both the individual and the masses. This is how we will be led out into disaster. Insight and knowledge are the medicine against all power.

Sources: Ingjald Nissen: The dictatorship of psychopaths. Aschehoug, 1975.HC Wind:
Recognition: a theme in Hegel's and modern philosophy. Aarhus University Press, 1998.

Terje Dragseth
Terje Dragseth
Author and filmmaker.

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