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Power incorporates the ability to defend ones own life
and property and ultimately to attack potential attackers.
Thus, power requires an ethic, a kind of plan for its use.
As a part of our SeniorPower Rules, we have figured out that
some rules for the use of power would be appropriate.
Rule 91:
Study the
ethics of personal power
There has been written extensively on this topic. Not as
much as on the gaining of power, the possession of power and
on the use of power. But certainly sufficient to
confuse.
Some visitors will allege, that the ethics of one of the
old religions will be the right base for our lives in the
next future. It is our firm opinion, that we can not cope
with the current state of world affair just by sticking
privately to such old rules.
For the purpose of seeking a modern and still universal
ethical base, we recommend Peter Singer: Practical
Ethics. A more updated issue is his How
are We to Live: Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest .
Rule 92:
Speak softly
and carry a big stick
We live in different environments, confess to different
religions and have different views on social behavior. In
our opinion this old adage (cited by Theodore Roosevelt
Sept.2, 1901, with the addition .. you will go far) well
express an appropriate fundament for a balanced life.
Rule 93:
Study
Machiavelli
Rule 94:
Study Chinese
warfare
The Swiss professor Harro von Senger has written a
remarkable book on Chinese Warfare: The
Book of Stratagems : Tactics for Triumph and Survival.
You may not need these stratagems for your personal
"warfare". But you may learn from the tactics of ancient
warfare to know more about possible tactics of today's
warriors. Sengers book seems to be out of order. But you may
read a book translated by Ralph D. Sawyer: One
Hundred Unorthodox Strategies - Battle and Tactics of
Chinese Warfare. We shall cite just the first of these
hundred strategies:
"Analyzing the enemy, taking
control of victory, estimating ravines and defiles, the
distant and the near, is the Tao of the superior
general"
Rule 95:
Study Karl von
Clausewitz
Rule 96:
Never reveal
everything
One of the best sellers in "power", Michael Korda, has
defined following power rule:
Never reveal all of yourself to other people,
hold something back in reserve so that people are never
quite sure if they really know you.
You may read more about this advice in the book Power!:
How to get it, How to use it! It is cheap and it is
entertaining and has a cassette.
Rule 97: Coming!
Rule 98: Coming!
Rule 99:
Be prepared to
fight for your grandchildren
If we intend to live another 25 years or love a
grandchild who will enter the future, we should consider the
use of power in the battle with two flanks: stopping the
population growth and stopping the wasting of resources,
including the wasting of conflicts. With the democratic
politics of today, acting for re-election, respectively the
self-interested dictators, professional senior citizens in
all countries may be the foremost force to save this
wonderful planet.
We urge all everybody with civil courage to join in the
battle for stabilizing and preserving our habitate.
Rule 100: Coming!
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