Power without Responsibility

This phrase has been rattling around my brain for a long time now. One of the first times I said it out loud, James Governor asked me for a link to where I’d blogged about it. I hadn’t: Oh! the shame.

Power

It’s hard to look around without seeing signs of humanity’s power. Financial, military, energy, influence/social control, resources, technology – power over our environment.

Almost every aspects of our lives and lifestyles sit at the top of a vast and complex web of technology. Many of us wouldn’t be alive today were it not for the direct intervention of medical technology and knowledge.

We think nothing of travelling hundreds or even thousands of miles in a few hours. I get the feeling that only the most humble of us think daily about the food we’re eating, the coffee we drink or the complexities behind sending an email or checking out a web page.

Now I’m going to pick on Dubai. Within a generation, the peoples of the UAE have come into possession of power beyond their fathers’ wildest dreams. The power to hire a workforce to build cities out of the desert, to own planes, yachts and residences (OK so that one’s in Abu Dhabi), but where is the responsibility to balance that power?