Friday, April 07, 2006

Power is my drug of choice

Yesterday I spent quite a few hours down at the Capitol, waiting for the photo op with the governor (and shy girl that I am I made sure I was standing right behind his chair) and participating in a “press conference.” Except, you know, there wasn’t any press. So it wasn’t really a press conference, just about fifty people milling around in the rotunda listening to “Able” Mable Thomas speak. It was, to be perfectly truthful, an embarrassment.



Rob got the first four episodes of “Big Love” for me to watch, and I am totally loving that show. Entertainment Weekly (EW) has proclaimed that we are living in the Golden Age of Television, and I have to agree. There’s some damned good writing on a lot of shows right now; sustained story arcs and character development---the very things that make me swoon. Maybe it’s because I don’t really read fiction anymore that I’ve come to rely on television to provide me with engrossing make-believe, or maybe it’s because television has the most engrossing make-believe out there. Regardless, Everyone: Go watch television! You won’t be sorry.



But back to yesterday and my day at the Capitol. I got to shake Governor Perdue’s hand and tell him my name before the photo was taken, and I have to tell you, as much as I may not be a Republican or an Old Guard Southerner or a Neo-Con or any of the many other things you can say about Georgia’s governor, I did, in that moment when our hands met, get the sweet little thrill of having touched a powerful man.



I love power. I’m ambitious, and ambition is power foreplay.
I get a thrill from being around power, and an even bigger thrill when I get to touch power, and the biggest thrill of all when I am in power. I love all kinds of power, including, but not limited to, the power of authority, the power of knowledge, political power, celebrity power and, in our culture, the most powerful power of all, money. I’m distrustful of anyone who claims not to care about power. They are either a) lying or b) have always had enough power that they don’t even know they possess it, and would probably be very inconvenienced and upset if they suddenly found themselves truly powerless (see: privilege, white or male). A love of power is not a polite thing to profess in progressive or liberal circles, but I can’t help it. I love power.

[CSY]


3 comments:

femmusic said...

Power is a wonder drug... what were you doing seeing the governor anyway???

casetheplace said...

It was with my internship...the governor signed a proclamation declaring April Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Georgia and took his picture with us.

Ryan Remains said...

Nice work admitting it. All of my power dreams get washed out in shyness, i.e. I think I could be a good public speaker, politician, etc. But mostly I don't want to have to talk to a lot of people. That's why I yell at my guitar and why tomorrow morning I'm writing "This machine kills facists," on my bass a la Woody Guthrie.