Image via Wikipedia

“There is an elusiveness about power that endows it

with an almost ghostly quality.  It is as abstract as

time, yet as real as a firing squad.”

Herbert Kaufman, The Mystery of Power, 1954

Endless difficulties are encountered when looking at the notion of power. Queries go unanswered. Conclusions are drawn all to quickly. Those in power become, in most cases, nothing more than footnotes in history, however there are exceptions, these are the exceptional ones. These individuals are looked at closer, examined and studied, and yes, used as patterns for those in power today. Comparisons are made, and wished for by a public wanting the goodness and forthrightness of great leaders from the past. Present day constraints are carried on the shoulders of those emulating others before them. History has a way of whiting out flaws in great leaders. This is not the case for present day leaders. Make a mistake and the cameras are on you. You’re page one material whether you want it or not.

Clearly power has a way of defining itself in the moment. It can be good and it can be bad. It is undiscriminating. It’s as ancient as Adam and Eve, yet as contemporary as modern man. Power is an instinct for superiority, a sixth sense used to get the job done. It has helped man progress and been there when man has regressed.

Hebrew legend tells the story of Adam’s first wife, Lilith. She was created by God at the same time as Adam, and, made from the same dust. Legend says Adam commanded Lilith to obey him, she refused, saying she was his equal because she was made from the same dust, and, at the same time as Adam. When Adam heard this he asked God to make the woman obey him. God commanded Lilith to obey three times. When she refused, God cast her into Hell where she became the mother of demons.

God then took one of Adam’s ribs and made Eve, telling her since she was made from a part of Adam, she owed him allegiance and obedience forever. Perhaps this was the first power relationship.

                                              HOWARD HUGHES AND OPERATION BOXCAR

In the pre-dawn hours on Thursday, April 25, 1968, Howard Hughes, an exhausted billionaire scribbled a four page letter to then president, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Ten days earlier Hughes had picked up a newspaper and read, and reread the federal government’s announcement of the impending detonation of a hydrogen bomb not 100 miles from his penthouse atop the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hughes considered this coming event a direct threat to his person after reading: “Persons up to 250 miles from detonation may feel a slight tremor immediately following the explosion, particularly if they are on upper stories of high buildings or other tall structures.”

Hughes began his letter to the President, “It is not my purpose to impede the defense program in any way, and I can positively prove that if my appeal is heeded it will have no deleterious effect,” then moving on to a more direct approach clearly offering something in return, “the nuclear test program will proceed more rapidly than at present.” A powerful man offered another powerful man a bribe to encourage the government to move the test site to another area, far away from Hughes beloved state of Nevada.

Years earlier, Hughes had made sizeable contributions to Johnson’s senatorial campaign. In effect he was calling in a marker. Call this coercive power. When this did not work, Hughes reverted to the tried and true, reward power, and offered a bribe.

We can only imagine how Hughes reacted while laying in his sweat soaked bed awaiting the countdown. At precisely seven o’clock on the morning of April 26, 1968, a 1.2 megaton blast shook the Nevada desert and registered shock waves on seismographs from New York to Alaska.  Operation Boxcar went off without a glitch.

It is ironic that Hughes, the most powerful man in America fought toe to toe with the government of the most powerful nation in the world to put a stop to the ultimate in out of control power…atomic fission.

Indeed, there is something magical about power. It can be both good and bad, undeniably it can be both. There are no accurate forms for measuring power. Endless difficulties occur when defining it. Perhaps, Herbert Kaufman got it best over 50 years ago.