Including values in our power analysis makes it clear there can be no such thing as simply removing power, because it takes power to remove power. Consequently,

Including values in our power analysis makes it clear there can be no such thing as simply removing power, because it takes power to remove power. Consequently, power doesn’t disappear, it redirects. In order to remove what they perceive as oppression—say by class, or race, or gender—social justice advocates have to erect their own power structure. They reshape morality, the culture, the language, and the legal system to make people do what they otherwise wouldn’t. And the more they try to eliminate those other forms of oppression, the more tightly they have to oppress people’s values. To increase freedom on one dimension, one must remove it on another. One of the central paradoxes of christian doctrine is the notion of "the power of powerlessness", though the idea exists elsewhere (and the phrase is, i think, Havel's). It is not a coincidence, I think, that the people who put their bodies and lives on the line for their commitment to social justice tend to know this and try to live it. It demands an almost inhuman level of awareness and humility. I am thinking of historical figures like Day and King and Ghandi here, as well as people who span generations, like John Lewis. Breaking the cycle of power-replaces-power is basically impossible to do, totally, but it's a windmill worth tilting at and at a minimum, the existence of the cycle needs to be kept in mind.