Discussion - The Morality and Use of Power

[Wolf_Knight]

I am new to writing and posting but I have played some RPGs with friends which is where my story has been inspired. We had been playing old Pen and Paper RPGs fro years not and always dealt with adult themes and the morality of out characters actions. Not exactly your normal group of kill everything adventurers, but that is who we were.

The question I wish to pose is simple - What is the morality of using power you have over someone else? If you have the power, no matter the source such as Magic in my stories, Blackmail in others, or simply the knowledge that you are able to manipulate the person due to their emotions or intelligence, is it right or wrong to use it? What if you're using it for personal gain or using it to benefit the individual you have the power over? What do you all think?

[snowleopard3200]

Originally Posted by Wolf_Knight

I am new to writing and posting but I have played some RPGs with friends which is where my story has been inspired. We had been playing old Pen and Paper RPGs fro years not and always dealt with adult themes and the morality of out characters actions. Not exactly your normal group of kill everything adventurers, but that is who we were.

The question I wish to pose is simple - What is the morality of using power you have over someone else? If you have the power, no matter the source such as Magic in my stories, Blackmail in others, or simply the knowledge that you are able to manipulate the person due to their emotions or intelligence, is it right or wrong to use it? What if you're using it for personal gain or using it to benefit the individual you have the power over? What do you all think?

To use such power to control another is the ultimate level of immorality; for it makes a victim of the one so manipulated or dominated. It is among the ultimate perversions anyone can unleash, as the damage so wrought is substantial, even when one does it 'to the benefit of the one you have power over,' for the simple reason of that they may not want what you see as a boon to them.

Now, stories that have the theme of a person in a position of power who has to find the morally right choices to make are good plots; sometimes the power holder has to make the classical 'choice of evils' when faced with the hard morality of 'which do I do now?"

If your going to do stories based on power, control and manipulation, do so with some caution.

[Wolf_Knight]

Power and manipulation aren't the primary plot points but the main characters development has to do with his learning where his morality stands when it comes to using the power he wields.

My main reason for posing the question is wanting to see what you all think about the issue of Morality. Another recent story series I saw, I believe it's called Brian's Power deal again with the point that no one ever sees themselves as being evil. Morality in the end is one of the few times where Perception is Reality. Morality is defined not by society but by the individual. I'm not saying that all actions are moral or acceptable to society, just that each individual decides what is morally acceptable to them. I'm like a lively discussion and would like to know others opinions on this issue and the use of it in stories as well. Since it applies to stories I put it in here, but now I am thinking this may have belonged in General Discussions.

[ejls]

There is Morality in life. We will all have to deal with our actions, one way or another.

Morality can be used as a theme in a fictional story. As the writer, you play god. You can make the person responsible for what they've done and reward or punish them. Or you can let them get away. You are God, as the creator of your story. You get to choose. There's no right or wrong answer.

[darthel0101]

Originally Posted by Wolf_Knight

Another recent story series I saw… deal again with the point that no one ever sees themselves as being evil.

What is 'Evil'?
Did Hitler see himself as evil when he scapegoated the Jews and engineered their attempted destruction? Did John Wayne Gacy see himself as evil when he killed those who he 'seduced'? Did Ted Bundy see himself as evil when he set out to seduce/rape and kill his victims? I do not know that we will ever know the answers to those questions but I would hazard a guess that they knew that what they were doing was wrong even as they made the decision to do what they did.

Originally Posted by Wolf_Knight

Morality is defined not by society but by the individual. I'm not saying that all actions are moral or acceptable to society, just that each individual decides what is morally acceptable to them.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says

The term “morality” can be used either

1. descriptively to refer to some codes of conduct put forward by a society or,
   1. some other group, such as a religion, or
   2. accepted by an individual for her own behavior or
2. normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all rational persons.

IMO 'Code of Conduct' would imply that it is used when dealing with other entities (individual or collective).
The statement above says that society decides its own morality as a composite entity but individuals within that society can have morals which are different from those of the society itself; your personal morals can be either stricter or looser than society's.
Please note that I am not using the terms good or bad because IMO ethics/morals can be viewed as RESTRICTIONS on behavior which is detrimental to social cohesiveness.

The fact that you are questioning the morality of somebody imposing their will on another implies one of two things:

• the one imposing their will KNOWS what is better for that person (very shaky ground except in specific, short term instances)
• the one imposing their will has personal morals which are looser than those commonly accepted by most societies today.

The use in a story of this type of imposition can be a very powerful element of that story but is commonly seen as "not a good thing to do" for the characters IN the story.

[darthel0101]

With the contents of my prior post in mind:

Morals/Ethics in society are an imposition on individuals to force certain TYPES of actions or avoidance of certain acts. The most famous example of this type of code is the famous set of tablets supposedly given on a certain mountain in the Middle East.

The code describes specific actions which are generally restricted in order to allow society to function but they ARE an imposition when SOCIETY applies that code to its members.

This code can be seen as a sliding scale when dealing with certain aspects. Sexual relationships is one which has been dealt with on this site. An example of stricter -vs.- looser in this topic would be age related (stricter would imply a greater age of consent) or nearness of relationship (immediate family -vs.- cousin -vs.- 2nd cousin -vs,- further relationship). Please note that I am not assigning a good -vs.- bad scale but simply strict -vs.- loose.

[Wolf_Knight]

I've enjoyed the responses so far and am looking forward to reading others opinions of this question. There is no right or wrong answer in this, just as Morality is a flexible as the individual who is consider the action they are about to take.

[BlackRonin]

Waiting for Nietzsche-heads to chime in...waiting...waiting...no no, trust me, they're not going to miss out on this. I couldn't possibly be so lucky.

[darthel0101]

Sorry to sound so clueless, BR, but what would their arguments be?
---- That is an area in which I lack familiarity.

[Wolf_Knight]

These are two quote form Nietzsche -

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
Friedrich Nietzsche

and

Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
Friedrich Nietzsche