Power Relations

Journal #2

Power relations

The ones that are placed above me are the people that I believe have or can exercise my power over, those people are all people that are older than me, and they are the one’s that I also trust to know better than me. My mom and dad of course has power over me, due to them being my parents and also because I am still living in their house. My elder brother on the other hand has power over me due to him being a family member that is older than me. Since my family is a bit of a traditional family in a sense that we respect the authority of our elders because we respect them to know better than us younger people. Sidetrack though, in my immediate family my mom and dad taught us to also be critical of this tradition because this form of respect and adoration towards the elders can be exploited by the elders, so my parents taught me to give respect and power over elders but they also give me the freedom and the power to not follow or question whether the elder is right or wrong. My teachers are of course exercising power over me, due to the fact that they are the reason why I’m learning for without teachers I wouldn’t be learning anything at all, plus the fact that they are in charge of assessing me whether I am fit for the next level.

My friends and classmates are in my opinion equal with me, since I believe that I have no power against them and they have no power against me. Although I know that there are classmates and friends that are better than me, is it basis enough to make them have power over me? I don’t think so.

Those people that I have control and power over are people who are generally younger than me except the helpers. Since my younger brother is the same as me to my elder brother, I put him in the category of those I have power over. While my friends and family that are younger are also people that I have power over, since most of the time I act as the “kuya” to them being a role model while at the same time enabling them to learn from my experiences. The helper however is usually older than me but still I have power over due to the fact that most of the time I ask for favors from them and I order them around.

In my life the seniority is a big factor in determining power and control since most people in my entry are categorized via their age over mine.