Power & Innocence – A Search for the Sources of Violence

Rollo May defines power as the ability to cause or prevent change; innocence on the other hand is the conscious divesting of ones power to make it seem a virtuea form of powerlessness that Dr. May sees as particularly American in nature. From these basic concepts he suggests a new ethic that sees power as the basis for both human goodness and evil. Dr. May discusses five levels of powers potential in each of us: the infants power to be; self-affirmation the ability to survive with self-esteem; self-assertion which develops when self-affirmation is blocked; aggression a reaction to thwarted assertion; and finally violence when reason and persuasion are ineffective.