POWER AND LOVE

Adam Kahane is a Fellow of the International Futures Forum with whom I have been working over the past 10 years ( www.internationalfuturesforum.com) . He is a veteran of the theory and practice of social change and is married to a South African. Here he convincingly argues that the traditional ways in which we try to solve our toughest problems, relying on violence and aggression or negotiation and compromise, are flawed. The first is characteristic of power, and the second of love. The thesis of this very important book is that power and love are in fact complementary. As Martin Luther King put it: 'power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anaemic.' In this context and following the lead of Paul Tillich, power represents the drive to self-realisation, while love is the drive to unity. These fundamental forces are in tension, but both are necessary. Interestingly, the historian Arnold Toynbee also writes extensively about these two forces as they play out both in ourselves and in our social relations.

One of the points of departure of the IFF is a realisation of complexity, which Adam defines in three ways. A challenge can be dynamically complex, necessitating seeing the system as a whole, socially complex where actors have different perspectives and interests, and generatively complex when the future is open and unfamiliar. The key insight is that 'love is what makes power generative instead of degenerative. Power is what makes love generative instead of degenerative. Power and love therefore exactly complementary' - each requires the other. Degenerative power is power-over, abusing force to suppress or dominate another. Generative power is empowering, as Erich Fromm also pointed out in his writings on the authority. In going through a number of practical examples, Adam points out the danger of ignoring power relations within a group with which one is working, commenting that power relations are never absent. Indeed, the tension between power and love always represents a dilemma, urging us to walk on both legs. Starting with a systemic analysis, it is a truism that 'the system is perfectly designed to produce the results it is now producing', a remark that applies equally to our individual lives. Another implication is that everyone in a negotiating situation needs to be prepared to change, instead of expecting all the change to come from the other side. The case studies explain the dynamics in more detail, illustrating possible pitfalls as one stumbles towards a resolution. The most successful interventions involved in growing sustainable food in Europe and the Americas, and mitigating climate change in Canada. Success depended in both cases on a high willingness to learn and listen to other people, as one builds capacity for co-creation. In a participatory and systemic situation, it is not surprising that 'the success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener' when one realises how important intent is and how it translates into outer circumstances. Adam considers qualities that hold us back from exercising all about power and love, identifying fear as the culprit, fear of offending or hurting others, or ourselves being embarrassed or hurt. So we need to move through our fears, and this subtle and practical book shows us how this can be done, not so much in reaching a conclusion as in arriving at the next stage of an ever-unfolding process.