Disempowering Empowerment)

The expression, “the power of your voice,” is used so overused and misused, that I couldn’t help but cringe as I wrote it as the title to this series. Most of the time that we hear it the message is trite and vapid, meant to flatter the listener and assign them an unspecific power. All of that being said, there actually is some real truth to the expression, and it seems sinister that the phrase has been appropriated so as to hide the real depth of it.

I recently made a small post about how rare it is for a person to be their true, genuine self. More often we meet people who are empty puppets, parroting the ideas and beliefs of others. This same pattern continues with the use of our voice. Most of us use our speech to merely regurgitate words that are entirely unoriginal. In fact, the very people who tell us not to forget the power of our voice are usually the ones who are also telling us what to use it to say. We are expected to adopt their cause and priorities, then use the power of our voices to spread them. That isn’t empowering to the individual, only to the one giving orders.

Thus, most people don’t really have a voice; they are only an extension of someone else’s, a speaker to an activist’s microphone. Most people have not delved deep enough into themselves to find out who they really are. They haven’t found their true substance, and so they have nothing real to speak from. So yes, a person’s voice has power, but it isn’t their voice until they are a real person.

Over the next few days, I will try to delve a little deeper into the power of one’s voice, providing a clear basis for why I think the statement is actually true. I will also acknowledge biblical warnings of the danger in that power, and how we should be careful of it. I will begin tomorrow by examining the physical and literal power in the human voice. See you then!