The fundamental form of power is defining reality
Evidence
Reality is, above all, a scarce resource. Like any scarce resource it is there to be struggled over, allocated to various purposes and projects, endowed with given meanings and potentials, spent and conserved, rationalized and distrib- uted. The fundamental form of power is the power to define, allocate, and display this resource. … It is above all a conflict not over the effects of communication but of the acts and practices that are them- selves the effects. — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 387
Reality is, above all, a scarce resource. Like any scarce resource it is there to be struggled over, allocated to various purposes and projects, endowed with given meanings and potentials, spent and conserved, rationalized and distrib- uted. The fundamental form of power is the power to define, allocate, and display this resource. … Therefore, the site where artists paint, writers write, speakers speak, filmmakers film, broadcasters broadcast is simultaneously the site of social conflict over the real. It is not a conflict over ideas as disembodied forces. It is not a conflict over technology. It is not a conflict over social relations. It is a conflict over the simultaneous codetermina- tion of ideas, technique, and social relations. — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 387
Categorization
- XREF: Parallels Foucault’s conjunction of power and discourse, and extends the effects tradition critique. — connects to: Reality is produced through collective work and action — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 386; Truth about the past limits human power, future-dependent truth expands it — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2937; Competence, not power, determines status in functioning societies. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 910 (+18 more)
- SEED: The framing ‘reality as scarce resource’ is a promising lens for analyzing modern platform economics and attention markets.
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 387
Broader Connections
- Communication constitutes reality rather than merely representing it
#corroborates(0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 382 - Power rests on arrangements over what is possible
#expands(0.85) - Becoming common sense is a key route to hegemonic power
#corroborates(0.80) - Power operates partly through perception rather than explicit verbal communication
#expands(0.80) - Power cannot self-realize but depends on societal-structural conditions for legitimacy
#complicates(0.78) - An ultimate power to decide generates its own norms and cannot be trusted
#expands(0.78) - Reality is produced through collective work and action
#expands(0.75) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 386 - Undifferentiated power conflates truth with decision-making authority
#expands(0.75) - Truth about the past limits human power, future-dependent truth expands it
#expands(0.70) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2937 - Objectivist truth served as philosophy’s safeguard against the intoxication of power
#complicates(0.70) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2943 - Competence, not power, determines status in functioning societies.
#complicates(0.65) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 910 - An acceptance of will determines the existence of the universe.
#corroborates(0.60) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 79