With Great Responsibility Comes Great Power

The quote we all know is backwards. 

Before it was popularized by Spider-Man, the idea was expressed in the words of Winston Churchill:

“Where there is great power there is great responsibility”

The sentiment runs even deeper. It echoes through our oldest religions and philosophy. 

It is  memorable. But it is not a fact in reality. 

It is a request. 

“With great power comes great responsibility” is a plea from the masses to encourage restraint in the powerful. Nothing compels the powerful to act responsibly except their values and incentives.  If they decide that quote is uncompelling, there is nothing stopping the powerful from wielding their hammer in ways the rest of us would deem “irresponsible”. 

This is why the quote is backwards, and why it is dangerous. 

The inversion is more accurate:

“With great responsibility comes great power”

Responsibility is not a burden placed on power. It is the source of power. 

This is clear in its own inverse:

“Where you forfeit responsibility, you are dependent. Where you are dependent, you surrender control”. 

Any aspect of your life where someone else has the responsibility of providing for you is an area that you forfeit your power to them. 

If someone is responsible for feeding you, you cannot walk away from them. 

If someone is responsible for paying you, its harder for you to resist their demands. 

If someone is responsible for your security, your autonomy exists at their discretion. 

Every responsibility you offload to someone else is a hole in your cache of personal power -  slowly draining until you are powerless to the structures around you. 

Today it's common to hear “Someone should be responsible for feeding me, housing me, educating me…but also I want to dictate the terms”. 

The cries are reminiscent of a pre-teen yelling at their parents over dinner, slamming the kitchen chair and storming off to their room.  A retreat to “their” room as an act of defiance while remaining under the roof of their parents who are responsible for taking care of them. 

True personal power is not granted, it is accumulated through responsibility.  When you take on the responsibility of others you gradually expand your power. But, this is not tyrannical power. It is not coercive nor extractive. This is the unifying and uplifting power built through mutual coordination, capability and trust. This is a group with the power to stand for their values.

You only have values to the extent you can afford to uphold them. 

If you cannot survive the costs of living true to your principles, they are conditional. True conviction requires independence. 

To paraphrase the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the greatest act of defiance is self-reliance. We cling to a myth that someone at the top will emerge and save us all at once. Be it a president, a new executive, a messiah.  If you want to take back power over your life, do not cry up the pyramid for the grace of those above you. 

Tend to the part of the part of the garden that you can touch. 

It starts with the smallest domain you can control. Start with yourself - your skills, your habits, your ability to provide. Then care for your family. Then your community. 

If everyone took radical responsibility for themselves and their neighbors, the need to appeal to a distant power diminishes. In that world the original quote is irrelevant. Power never required responsibility. It emerges from it.