Sophie Nguyen Week #1: Insert Spiderman Quote Here
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about language and power is this one debate I had with my friend in 8th grade about the prompt: Is “too much” always a bad thing? The year was 2018. My friend was the type to spur random debates. The argument took place over Google Hangouts, as that was our main platform of communication at the time. I don’t exactly remember how we got to that point of the discussion, but I still stand by my reasoning. I was on the side saying “too much” is always bad and my friend was saying that it could be good. Their reasoning was that “well when has too much money ever been a problem?” I said that the term “too much” naturally has a negative connotation (just learned what the word connotation meant around that time), so by adding the statement along with any phrase, it is inherently a bad thing.
Eventually, after giving many similar examples, my friend came to the question, “Is there such a thing as too much power?” In which I rebutted with the same thing I said for every other question. But this question made me think a bit more than the others, past the point of the fact that I still think “too much” is a negative phrase. Three years later and I’m still thinking about that argument.
A common theme in many movies, cartoons, and video games is that the villain had gained too much power and it went straight to their head. “With great power comes great responsibility” is a quote most recognizable from Benjamin Parker from the Spiderman universe. If a person has too much power and they don’t know how to deal with it, they end up becoming the villain in the story. Usually the heroes are the ones who have learned to control and use their powers for the greater good. The problem for these characters is that they don’t have the mental or physical capacity to carry all the weight on their shoulders. Therefore, even after about three years, my statement still stands. There is such a thing as too much power.
“Is there such a thing as too much power?” I like this question because my first thought was to analyze it from the perspective of an isolated individual and my instinctual answer was actually no. No based on the idea that power strictly means control over their lives to the point that they can have whatever they want whenever they want. However, from an existential and psychological perspective it is the things that we can’t have and that we seek to have that makes life worth living. So yes, there is such a thing as too much power. I would like to rephrase the original question: “If you were given the chance to become god, would you?”
ReplyDeleteHi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteI found your argument interesting and I agree with your points. It is evident that too much power is almost always a bad thing. In the earlier days, country leaders and politicians often exercised their power to the highest extent they could. Power can corrupt people, causing them to corrupt governments. This is why it was essential to our government that the three branches, legislative, judicial, and executive, were introduced in 1787. This creates a separation of power and protects the citizen's rights, ensuring that too much power is not in the hands of certain individuals.
Hi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteEven though I don't normally watch animes, I found myself watching the entirety of Death Note in two nights. Apart from the fact that it would make a banger blog, I was really intrigued by the sheer power that tempted a student just as old as me or you. I told myself that I would never have followed in Light Yagami's footsteps, but it's really hard to know for sure. Your comment about a character's "mental capacity" really mirrored these thoughts; no matter how smart he was, Light Yagami was ultimately corrupted by a power that no human should have possessed.
Sincerely,
Sean Wang
Hey Sophie,
ReplyDeleteReading your blog made me think of Abigail Williams from The Crucible. Before the witch trials, she was an unmarried woman in Salem—a nobody. However, as soon as she was granted the ability to determine whether one is a witch—essentially giving her a large say in whether an individual will be condemned to death—she grew evil. She accused even those who loved her, like the helpless slave Tituba, and ultimately was responsible for the deaths of 14 people and the destruction of the close-knit community of Salem. Because the power given to her was too great for her to handle responsibility without falling prey to its temptation, she ultimately became corrupted, and she is a strong literary example of the argument you create in your blog post.
Hi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that "too much power" is a bad thing, but I would like to point out a flaw in your argument as I see it. In your argument, you state that "If a person has too much power and they don’t know how to deal with it, they end up becoming the villain in the story." You use the word "if," implying that should a person have too much power and know how to deal with it, they would not be a villain. Of course, this leads to a crucial question that I have to ask you: would it be better for some of the people with too much power to suddenly lose it than if everyone kept it (i.e. if all the superheroes suddenly became powerless without anything happening to the villains)?
Sincerely,
Raymond Yu
Hi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteI think that many of the arguments made in your blog is correct. If I think back to Avengers: Endgame, Thanos had too much power, but he used it to destroy the power itself. What is interesting is that Thanos was portrayed as the villain but he used his power for the greater good. I think this is the one flaw with your argument: People who have too much power can decide themselves what they want to do with it, and some will choose to misuse it.
Sincerely,
Vivan Waghela
Hello Sophie,
ReplyDeleteI can't help but agree with you and say that the phrase "too much" carries a negative connotation in of itself. While I disagree with your sentiment that "too much" of anything is always a bad thing, I can agree that too much power is most definitely a bad thing. Too much power seems to always lead to oppression in some way, shape, or form. I would like to continue off the analogy you made with the MCU. For example, in Avengers: Infinity War as well as in Avengers: Endgame, Thanos is portrayed as having infinite power. Due to this, he believed himself just in killing half of all life. The power he obtained got to his head and made him believe that he was allowed to make decisions for everyone else.
Hey Sophie!
ReplyDeleteI don't think being "too much" is necessarily bad, but that took me a lot of time to learn. Growing up I would be called "too much" a lot due to my loud bubbly personality. It is something I have worked really hard throughout my life to temper, but I am beginning to realize that there is nothing inherently wrong with being that way. I hate that my perception was warped to believe a negative connotation that forced me to not want to express myself. But in the context of power, I think "too much" can be negative. People tend to get power-hungry and greedy when given too much power, which has serious pitfalls.