Playing the authority game with our peers / friends is a much more volatile game as we are able to shift our perception of authority from one person to the next within our conversations and interactions with one-another from one moment to the next.
As was seen within the previous two authority games, we are always dealing with a polarity, where the ‘positive’ polarity stands as being the authority and the ‘negative’ polarity stands as being submissive to the authority. Both polarities are existent simultaneously within the game being played as one person stands as authority and the other accepts being submissive to the authority that is being represented.
We start playing this game at a very young age, where if one takes in the positive / authority position within this game we will test boundaries, see how far we can push another, see how far we can control another. This game is extremely evident within a child that starts to play the game as the game has not yet been refined within and as themselves to be completely ‘believable’ to the person who they are playing the game with. Their attempts of being the authority figure within the peer relationship can be seen as little gestures for instance where the one child insists on the friend coming over to them instead of them walking over to the friend. It is in these ‘cute’ little acts that we see our children starting to imitate and play the game that we as parents have programmed our children with.
From the ‘negative’ / submissive position, the person who takes in the submissive position has to completely within themselves believe that what the person who is taking in the positive / authority position is saying and acting out. Once this belief is absolute the person takes in the submissive position to the person who took authority within the specific game that was played.
The authority game amongst peers is played through ‘who is right’ or ‘who has a right’. The ‘who is right’ is about knowledge and information and the person with the most valuable knowledge and information is ‘right’. Remember this is all about perception – The information does not ‘in fact’ require to be ’correct’, so long as the person who takes in the submissive position believes that the other person is right they will take in the submissive position to and towards the person to who they perceive is ‘holding the keys’ to being right.
The ‘who has a right’ is again about perception. Here a few factors can be at play for instance:
A person with more money
A person from a ‘respectable family’
A person with an acquired skill
A person with acquired knowledge
The person who takes in the submissive position to the person to whom they perceive have more authority than them due to the ‘perception’ that they have of the person believing that the other person ‘has a right’ because they ‘are’ for example ‘richer’, is a belief that is formed within the submissive person to which the submissive person bows down before the belief, believing the belief has power and authority over them, which they then manifest into the world by accepting and allowing the other person to take in the authority position within the relationship.
The authority game is a polarity game where the person taking in the submissive position is already negatively charged but through the participation within the relationship with the person who has taken in the authority position, they will feel better about themselves (become positively charged) by having the person in authority being ‘their friend’.
The person who took in the authority position experiences a positive experience because they have taken in the positive position, and simultaneously they see their opponent in their game as subordinate (negative) to themselves, this makes them feel better about themselves as they are in a superior / positive position.
Yet all the while this game is being played, the person who has taken in the authority position knows within and as themselves that they are not standing as ‘real’ authority; they are making use of the system design in claiming their authority over another, worried within and as themselves that they may be caught out, and relieved once the person who they are playing the game with submits to them as once the person has submitted, there is a moment of release as the game was won.
No comments:
Post a Comment