Off-White designer Virgil Abloh today penned an editorial on power for the NY Times. The opinion piece is part of an ongoing philosophy series asking notable thinkers and writers to answer the question, “What is power?”
Titled “The Myth that Defines our Ages,” the piece sets up power as a myth that “if widely accepted enough, can become real.”
Abloh writes, “Those few myths that spread tend to define our reality, although that reality remains fleeting as our collective memory ebbs and flows. The only constant myth in the world is that of our individual personalities. We each concoct our own myth–that of who we are.
“Today’s internet generations have been graced with equity at birth, in that they have the means to create power for themselves, even if they do not start out with it. In the digital world, the myth of power persists as a construct. To believe that you have power is to have it.”
As pointed out on our Instagram feed, Abloh’s internet-powered view of power is not unlike that of “Game of Thrones” whereby people who rule over others only do so because they’re followers believe in their greatness…until they don’t.
Check out an exchange between Lord Varys and Tyrion below in which Vary’s states, “Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall and a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
