Persuasion

Being able to persuade people is an art, be it mastered by the means of thorough study and practice or the gift of nature. And of course as it gives relative power over other person or even group of people, due to the human nature it can be used either for bad or good purposes.

Persuasion is a great ability that comes natural only to few and is so desired and studied by many. It is so desired as by the means of it person acquires certain level of influence over the people, and can impact their decisions and actions. Hence, I believe that persuasion is a form of power as it enables the beholder to manipulate the other individuals in his or her favor.

In my opinion persuasion can be either "power over" or "power with", depending on the intentions of the person executing it. If this skill is used in order to manipulate the person to do something that they do not want to do, or that brings personal gain to the one doing the persuasion it is definitely the use of “power over”. On the other hand, if the person let’s say is constantly late for work and the supervisor uses his power of persuasion to stop this behavior it will definitely be “power with”. In this case persuasion is applied in dealing with the common issue that is beneficial for neither of the parties.

Clearly the definition of persuasion depends on the context it is used in, as it can be used for different purposes. The context of the art of persuasion applied defines if it is used to just enable person to do things, or simply force them to do things that are benefit only to the master of persuasion. This is a wonderful ability, however the line between "power over" or "power with" is very thin and often times almost invisible.