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.The kind of Godimplied by the drive to power is dangerous, but he is more civilized thanthe God of stage one.In describing this new God we would say that he isSovereignOmnipotentJustThe answerer of prayersImpartialRationalOrganized into rulesCompared to the God of stage one, this version is much more social.He isworshiped by those who have formed a stable society, one that needs lawsand governance.The Almighty is not so willful as his predecessor; hestill metes out punishment, but you can understand why—the wrongdoerdisobeyed a law, something he knows in advance not to do.Justice is nolonger so rough; the kings and judges who take their power from God do sowith a sense of being righteous.They deserve their power—or so they tellthemselves.As with Macbeth, the wielders of power get caught up in urgesthat are all but irresistible.The drama of power is based on the reactive response, a biological need tofulfill ego demands.This response has not been studied well; we cansurmise that it is associated with the midbrain, which lies between theoldest animal structures of the old brain and the rationality of thecerebral cortex.This is a shadowy region, and for decades no one reallybelieved that ego—meaning your sense of identity and personality—wasinnate.Then studies in infant development by Jerome Kagan and othersbegan to demonstrate that babies do not simply learn to have a personalidentity.Almost from the moment of birth some newborns are outgoing,demanding in their needs, bold, and curious about the outside world, whileothers are introverted, quiet, undemanding, and shy about exploring theirenvironment.These traits persist and expand through childhood and in factremain for life.This implies that the ego response is built into us.The ruling dictum of the reactive response is "More for me." Taken toofar, this leads to corruption, since eventually an insatiable appetitemust run into the desires of others.But in biological terms the drive formore is essential.A newborn infant exhibits a total lack of disciplineand control.Child psychiatrists believe that all boundaries are fluid inthe beginning.The baby is enclosed in a womblike world where the walls,crib, blanket, and even mother's arms are still part of anundifferentiated, amorphous entity.To take this blob of sensation andfind out where "I" begins is the first task of growing up.The birth of ego is primitive at first.When an infant touches a hot stoveand draws away in shock, he remembers the pain not only as discomfort butas something "I" don't want.This sense of ego is so primary that weforget what it was like not to have it.Was there a time when I saw mymother smiling down at me and felt that her emotions were mine? Apparentlynot—without being able to think or reflect, the seed of ego came into theworld with us.Need, desire, pain, and pleasure were felt as "mine" andremained that way, only growing in intensity.Nor do we find any altruistic gods in world mythology.The firstcommandment given to Moses is "You shall place no other God before me."Jehovah survives all competitors in the Old Testament—we don't evenwitness much of a contest.But in other systems, such as the Greek and theHindu, the war for power is constant, and one gets the sense that Zeus andShiva have to keep their eyes open if they want to remain at the top ofthe pantheon.The Judaic God is a surprising victor in his emergence froma small, conquered nation that had ten of its twelve tribes wiped off theface of the earth by powerful foes, yet the subjugated Hebrews were ableto look beyond their situation.They projected a stable, unshakable Godwho could not be touched by any shift of power on earth—the first GodAlmighty to survive all challengers.Jehovah succeeded because he exemplified a world that was fastevolving—the world of competition and ambition.Raw power is violent,while the power achieved through ambition is subtle.At the level ofsurvival, you get the food you need by stealing it from others; sex isconnected with rape or the stealing of women from another tribe.The Godof stage two doesn't condone rape and pillage, however; he has structureda hierarchical world, one in which you can appeal to the king or the judgeto settle who owns the crops and whose wife is legitimate.The struggle tobring in laws to replace sheer might divides stage one and stage two,although there is always the threat of reversion.Power addicts you togetting what you want, exposes you to the temptation to trample otherpeople's needs according to the rule that might makes right.To preventthis we have a new God, an omnipotent judge who threatens even the mostpowerful king with retribution if he goes too far.Who am I?.Ego, personality.Every parent is aware of the phase in a toddler's life associated with the"terrible twos," when power dawns.The two-year-old who throws tantrums,coaxes, wheedles, and manipulates any situation to get his way is testinghis ego boundaries.Earlier time was spent mastering basic skills ofbodily coordination, but now the time is ripe for discovering just how farI, me, mine will get you.Exasperated they might get, good parents do notstifle this sudden fascination with power.They realize that balance growsout of excess; without the testing of limits, the ego would either becowed into submission or lost in grandiose fantasies.From its first days, the ego finds that making things go your way isn'tautomatic.Parents say no, and more important, have their own lives, whichmeans that a child cannot usurp every moment of their attention.These areshocking discoveries, but as a young child adapts to them, he prepares forthe bigger shock ahead—that there are other children who want to grab thelove and attention that used to be yours by right.This contest ofcompeting egos creates the drama of stage two.If you know yourself to be competitive and ambitious, it goes withoutsaying that at some level you have given your allegiance to the God ofthis stage [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]