Soft Power...Does it Deserve the Risk of Trying?

Did your Life tape pass by one of these stations: a strict father who does not accept discussion, a mother whose uncontrolled possessive love suffocates you, a teacher who detains you in a ferrous discipline, a guide or a monk who sees a sin or destruction for you if you don’t follow his interpretations, a bad-tempered cruel manager who wants you to obey his instructions out of fear, a life partner whose relation with you doesn’t get straight except if you accept the authoritative jealous, and maybe spying ways, a state leader who wants you to forget his dictatorship and your ambitions thru his military adventures masked by national justifications.

These are the practices of the rough force, which grants its performer a feeling of control and superficial confidence or the security and success or vanity and glory; practices that breed tension and the struggles, offering no guarantees of continuous effectiveness. Practices whose successes are at the expense of others, producing victims, who in turn dream of vengeance or repeating the experience with others, in the family or at work or in the street, only if they change roles. Hence the other victims will have to succumb to feelings of fear and oppression in this vicious circle.

But what about “the stronger party”? Does the brutal force hide the fear of failure or tension and anxiety or lack of ideas and internal contradictions or inability to understand oneself and others or lack of respect for dignity, feelings, and freedom of others?. And if even it is effective temporarily, does it provide for the inpidual peace or serenity?. How can a community be based on the rule of force, without solidarity, without rules, without rights, without love, respect, tolerance, freedom, and peace?

May be through the phases of your life, you had a repulsive or hatred feelings towards those examples, but those, in turn, may had been victims of others beforehand without understanding the lesson or becoming mature enough out of the experience, and found later that being the perpetuators themselves compensates a dignity and a freedom tread by the feet of oppression, ignorance, injustice, shame or the fear and despair. As if they don’t fight for value but for tight personal ambitions, so they feel happy when they achieve them, and if not they surrender to sadness.

Did they imagine that controlling others can be an alternative to controlling self-contradictions and negativity, and evidence of lack of confidence and honesty towards self and others, and failure to respect values of freedom and the dignity?

Can the perpetuator dream for once to have power based on pure nature, coherent logic, brain supremacy, genuine values stemming from true self and feelings and the respect of freedom, dignity, law, and rights?; when the pure true self achieves the personal goals while keeping harmony in societies when the good example becomes a generator of success, progress and happiness when impartiality and the honesty leads to the comprehensive vision and the triumph of values, when social interactions guarantee the true interests of all when understanding oneself and others ensures the deep brotherhood, respect, and solidarity, and the love of all in one...

This is soft power, so do we want it for ourselves? Does it deserve the risk of trying? Do we have faith in the goal’s nobility, and the hope and the perseverance to achieve it?

The answer is your choice, and the consequences are your responsibility.