"We divide human drives into three groups: (1) those drives that can be satisfied with minimal effort; (2) those that can be satisfied but only at the cost of serious effort; (3) those that cannot be adequately satisfied no matter how much effort one makes. The power process is the process of satisfying the drives of the second group. The more drives there are in the third group, the more there is frustration, anger, eventually defeatism, depression, etc."
"In primitive societies, physical necessities generally fall into group 2: They can be obtained, but only at the cost of serious effort. But modern society tends to guaranty the physical necessities to everyone [9] in exchange for only minimal effort, hence physical needs are pushed into group 1. (There may be disagreement about whether the effort needed to hold a job is "minimal"; but usually, in lower- to middle-level jobs, whatever effort is required is merely that of OBEDIENCE."
"You sit or stand where you are told to sit or stand and do what you are told to do in the way you are told to do it. Seldom do you have to exert yourself seriously, and in any case you have hardly any autonomy in work, so that the need for the power process is not well served.)"
Human drives can be grouped as easily satisfied, satisfiable only with serious effort, or effectively unsatisfiable. The power process consists of satisfying drives that require serious effort. Modern industrial society tends to move natural drives into the easily satisfied or unsatisfiable groups, leaving the middle group populated by artificially created needs. Primitive societies typically place physical necessities in the effortful middle group, whereas modern systems guarantee physical needs for minimal obedience. Low- to middle-level jobs often require compliance rather than autonomy, and social drives alone frequently fail to provide sufficient opportunities to fulfill the power process.
Read at archive.nytimes.com
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