Power from Our Biology

Although I have gotten a chance to think more deeply about the dynamics of power in the social world, my views about power have not changed much since the beginning of the class, they have only been strengthened. I believe that almost all human motivation comes from biological origins. For example, we only pursue romantic relationships so that we can eventually reproduce and have offspring. We only go to school and get jobs in order to make money that will allow us to satisfy basic human needs such as eating, drinking, health care, and even sexuality. This may seem slightly radical, but I believe that although we are not constantly thinking about our biological needs, we are biological beings, and most of our motivations come from our biology.

That being said, I believe all applications of social power have something to do with human biology. One human wouldn’t let another human control him unless he thinks it will somehow benefit him to comply with the power. For this reason I would argue that military and economic sources of power are the most prominent in the social world. Military power is the strongest because the primary objective of humans is survival, so when one is faced with the possibility of death, they are likely to comply. Economic power is also extremely important because economic wealth directly translates to the fulfillment of human needs such as nutrition and health. Because economic and military powers are so closely related to biological motivations, I believe they are the ultimate sources of social power. Although we had never directly learned this from our studies of the ancient empires, I have thought about power in this context for the duration of the course.