Don Silver weighing in on the difference between Empowerment and Enabling

We often see what appears to be an very empowering article or posting and don’t always recognize the difference between that and the reality of it being just an enabler doing their enabling thing. One issue that immediately presents itself is the definition of either is the same … if you empower someone you are enabling them and if you enable someone then you are empowering them. How is it that societally we see them as different actions and no where near the same?

I want people to be empowered and able to be, do and have any and all they can imagine and some things they might not be currently able to imagine. The enabler wants to have the illusion of empowerment and maintain them in a level of subservience and not fully complete or competent to “be all they can be” … and yet I think that most of them do not know or understand the difference and thus, the damage.

One of the things that comes to mind when I ponder this is the movie “Idiocracy” – we are dumbing down to the point where the “feel good” words are passed around as empowerment and nothing changes. Our elementary schools teach “sight reading” instead of phonics and the students are rewarded for their effort instead of results. Arithmetic is similarly graded on effort instead of results. They don’t have to memorize the multiplication tables or really learn to think.

Let’s get back on track where we actually learned things and thought for ourselves. Empower yourself to be more able to accomplish more than you think you can and empower your family to accomplish more then YOU think they can. Start now. Your success will reward you and all those around you.