Empowerment

[Lark]

Is empowerment possible or is it a kind of ruse or illusion? Is it perhaps elusive rather than illusive? What way does it relate to opportunity? Is it an impossibility?

 

[Gaze]

Is empowerment possible or is it a kind of ruse or illusion? Is it perhaps elusive rather than illusive? What way does it relate to opportunity? Is it an impossibility?
- I think it is both when the opportunities are not available. I think it's often achieved by rewriting the rules about what is possible. This is why we have resistance and revolution, making space for things where no space existed before. However, when you rearrange space to make possible what didn't exist before, it also means, you displace something else to make room. Empowerment often assumes that you have everything within you or that you can simply give someone the tools and it's up to them to use or take advantage of the opportunity provided. I think this ignores the limits imposed on the situations or circumstances we face. Feeling empowered is not the same as being empowered. You can feel free but still be imprisoned. Depends on what you perceive empowerment to be. I think if you focus on empowerment, you may find yourself being used. However, if you understand that there are limits what you can achieve within the circumstances you face, then maybe you can do more than you thought possible, by realizing that what's possible or reasonably able to be accomplished, may vary from situation to situation. You may feel differently empowered depending on the situation.

 

[the]

Is empowerment possible or is it a kind of ruse or illusion? Is it perhaps elusive rather than illusive? What way does it relate to opportunity? Is it an impossibility?

Empowerment gives the notion that you are being at least partially strengthened by another, which potentially leaves you at a disadvantage with that person. So in a way it is an illusion.

 

[La Sagna]

Individuals can empower themselves to the extent that their situation allows them. We have free will, therefore we can use it to reach for more power in our lives and on our situation. What we don't have control over is the result. An enslaved person can try to escape to empower themselves, and if the situation is favourable they may end up free and in a much more empowered position, or they may end up getting killed trying to escape or being caught and beaten or treated even worse than before. This is an extreme case but it's the same for any situation where a person is not fully empowered. You can strive for empowerment and you may reach it or you may end up in the same or a worse place.

I do believe thought that striving for empowerment is healthier than giving up because it may not turn out the way you want. If you don't try you may have forfeited your opportunity to be empowered.

 

[Lark]

Empowerment gives the notion that you are being at least partially strengthened by another, which potentially leaves you at a disadvantage with that person. So in a way it is an illusion.

I'm inclined to agree with that, a lot of the time I see it used along the lines of telling someone who's asking for help to go help themselves instead.

 

[say what]

I'm inclined to agree with that, a lot of the time I see it used along the lines of telling someone who's asking for help to go help themselves instead.

As [MENTION=9809]La Sagna[/MENTION] said- you can empower yourself. Empowerment doesn't always rely on another- it's often the result of you taking power from someone or a relationship that is disempowering you.

I think empowerment is, at times, an illusion...but it's not one or the other. Empowerment largely comes within - recognizing your own relationship with another, and understanding the power dynamics. Even understanding and acknowledging unequal power is empowerment.

 

[Lark]

As @La Sagna said- you can empower yourself. Empowerment doesn't always rely on another- it's often the result of you taking power from someone or a relationship that is disempowering you.

I think empowerment is, at times, an illusion...but it's not one or the other. Empowerment largely comes within - recognizing your own relationship with another, and understanding the power dynamics. Even understanding and acknowledging unequal power is empowerment.

I think that disempowerment is more of a reality than empowerment, its got an interesting relationship to opportunity which I've been thinking a lot about lately and trying to read up on.

This is largely all to do with reading and thinking about freedom that I've been undertaking lately, there's been a whole celebratory tones press or push of the concept by the BBC in online magazines and on facebook but its very neo-liberal lite and I would like to consider it in that respect but a wider more important respect too.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

I think empowerment is not often about acquiring an extrinsic power/ability/influence/etc. It is mostly about removing intrinsic obstacles to intrinsic ability.

That said, I do think there are many types of extrinsically acquired/received empowerment, but I think they are dubious unless they include with them whatever is necessary to remove internal limitations. Otherwise, they are not true empowerment, but occasions for frustration.