Bending a wire - malleable, responsive to pressure.
Bending a stick - possible but requiring more force, with the likely risk of breaking.
Bending the unbendable - the truest test of power, usually resulting in destruction rather than compliance.
In authoritative dynamics, like a king and his subjects, there's an implicit understanding that the subjects are merely extensions of the sovereign's will, and the king must navigate the delicate balance between control and consent.
Actually, it's not necessarily a must, but more so an expectation woven into the fabric of hierarchical systems, in that power flows downward while legitimacy flows upward.
Although it is the king's job to bring order into the kingdom, maintaining order is arguably more about managing the tension between resistance and submission than achieving true stability.
I don't think stability ever exist in power dynamics, there's always so much undercurrent pressure brewing underneath the perceived surface stability.
Also, every act of authority is simultaneously an invitation to rebellion.
In terms of hierarchy, those at the top trying to control those at the bottom and those at the bottom trying to not be controlled by those at the top and secretly or not secretly plotting to take their spot is always one of my favourite arcs to analyze in stories and history.
Your boss gives you tasks, and most of the time you do them, you're the wire, bending easily.
But when they pile on too much work or ask you to do something you hate, you start to resist. Now you're the stick, harder to bend.
And the next stage is when they cross a line. Say maybe asking you to lie to customers or work unpaid overtime. Some might refuse completely, others not.
Those that refuse have become unbendable, and something has to give.
The wire bends easily until it's bent too many times and snaps from metal fatigue. The stick holds firm until the pressure exceeds its breaking point.
The point of the matter is that the bending of a subordinate is not an unlimited resource, every act of coercion adds stress to the system's eventual breaking point.
And what of the unbendable?
In some ways, I think the truly unbendable elements in any hierarchy are the human desires for autonomy, dignity, and ascension.
These cannot be bent without breaking, and when they break, they sometimes take the entire structure down with them.
A somewhat classic example is parents and their kids when they become teenagers.
A parent says "clean your room" and the teen could comply and do it (wire). Push harder with "no phone until it's done" and you get pushback (stick).
Now, try to control who they date or what they believe, and you obviously hit the unbendable, rebellion phase, sneaking around, or complete shutdown.
I guess parents can't just help it but try to impose their will on their children and teens can't allow anyone for that matter to infringe on their autonomy, it's the only thing they can perceive as their own, so to speak.
Every hierarchy contains the seeds of its own change. Apart from just following orders, the people at the bottom are watching, learning, and waiting for their chance to move up or break free.
The people at the top know this, which is why they spend so much energy maintaining control.
Anywhere power concentrates, it simultaneously creates its own opposition that would lead to its demise. And there's probably no way around this fundamental law of power.
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