Different spectrums of a person

A single individual can play a lot of roles..

When I am with different people I act differently. This is because sometimes I am a leader, sometimes I am the follower. Sometimes I lead, sometimes I let others lead. Sometimes it's official business, sometimes it's just out for a drink. Sometimes it's friendly, sometimes it's to argue.

And you get to see a faction of me depending on who you are. If you are constantly a person that falls under my supervision, most of the time you'll only see the leader in me. But if you are a leader in a group in which I am a member of, then you'll see the subordinate in me. Then there are those who gets to see both sides of me, but they'll never see me when I'm with my girlfriend, because I will not treat anyone else the same as my girlfriend. And she only gets to see this part of me because she doesn't spend all her time with me.

All this is has to do with the fact that human action/reaction is fluid. And this fluidity means that we are constantly changing and adpating to our situations and surroundings. Power is fluid. The more you know about a topic or issue, the more power you have, thus the notion that knowledge is power. Everyone has their own set of knowledge and thus, with this knowledge comes cultural capital.

You have cultural capital when you have built up a reputation for yourself on a certain issue or discipline. If everyone knows that I am good in English, when I speak about English everyone will listen as if every word that comes out of my mouth is cast in stone. I have become the authority in the subject for that matter, and that is because I have built up my cultural capital in the subject. Even if a Professor that specialises in Atomic Energy would stand beside me and speak on the topic of 'English' I would still have the public's trust. But if a Professor of Linguistic studies were to speak at the same time as I do, then tendencies are that people will listen to him rather than me because he has more cultural capital. His reputation gives him that.

The fluidity of power and influence.

So too in every person. Our personalities are fluid. Sometimes we are strong, sometimes we are weak. Sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow.

That's why, misunderstandings happen so often. No one can ever understand a person fully. Sometimes, the person will not be able to understand him/herself either. It's because we are constantly changing, constantly adapting...

So before you judge a person, try to think whether you've seen enough of the person to make a true and fair assessment of the situation.

Power... it's so beautiful, yet so devastating... It'll destroy even the toughest man... It'll make or break a person.

The person who has the most power is the one who is able to control whatever power that is given him. Only then, he is more powerful than power. The fool will be subdued by his own power.