Power is not a simple thing, it takes on many shapes as I explored in the essay in my book, but it also exists in different places and does different things. The power of a sports franchise is not the same as the power of a park in a community; both of these kinds of power are however meaningful. In this essay I will define and explore the different sectors of power that shape our everyday lives. Social, cultural, economic, and political power are listed in this order with some intention. Social and cultural power while they share some similarities are not the same thing. Like weather is a daily phenomenon where as climate is the long term defining trend social power ebbs and flows quickly while cultural power is more substantial. We have an incestuous relationship between economic and political power at this time and while it is bad in America is is worse in other places.
Social power is what is most readily on display in social media. It is the flash of the latest trend, the current viral sensation, the chicken sandwich that has people lined up around the block. Social power is all of these things competing at once for our attention. Social power is a quick indicator and often a coded messenger on things doing on deeper in the culture. What we're seeing right now in the way that Amazon is manipulating content is a flex in social power. Amazon is removing references to fighting tyranny from Robin Hood and removing the text the scenes that showed the FBI wiring tapping Rev. Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr from the movie Selma. These might seem like small changes but the stories we tell and share matter because they signal something deeper about our culture. Several years ago in Jacksonville, FL the power company Jacksonville Electric Authority was embroiled in a series of scandals. First came the rampant sharing of racist memes and jokes within the company, the social indicator was a clear signal about a deeper racist culture at JEA which denied raises and promotions to Black staff.
Social power can be thought of like water, flowing and changing quickly. Culture is the river channel those waters flow through and they do interact with each other. Culture says what kinds of stories we can tell and even what kind of language we can use. For many years American media was strictly controlled and couldn't show basic things like toilettes or men and women sleeping in the same beds. Culture can even control what we eat and drink; while prohibition is long gone in the US there are still places where alcohol is illegal. Culture dictates what kinds of practices are acceptable like segregation or sexism. There is a constant back and forth between culture and society, the goal of meaningful social movements is ultimately shift the culture. When people got sick of a the social acceptance of racism the culture changed.
