By Micah Marie F. Naadat
In Christopher Nolan’s award-winning masterpiece, Oppenheimer, Admiral Lewis Strauss (played by Robert Downey, Jr.), a businessman turned government official who did not see eye-to-eye with atomic bomb creator J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), stated this famous quote, “Amateurs seek the sun and get eaten. Power stays in the shadows.”
Across the world, power dynamics are shifting. The United States is on the brink of presidential elections once again. Student protests across prestigious Ivy League universities are getting more and more rampant by the day, because of the war in Gaza. Trump’s Immunity Case might set a dangerous precedent, not just in U.S. Courts but in other jurisdictions as well.
In our own waters, China is getting more aggressive within our jurisdiction.
Empathy is demanding for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. News coverage in the area is not easily accessible anymore. Journalists have already been killed in the territory. The last publicly reported death toll in Gaza by international news outlets—over 30,000 people—was still in March 2024, over two months ago. Respect for human dignity is understanding and lending a listening ear to the pleas of the working class, because they all just want to lead more meaningful and less burdensome lives.
True power is knowing that abuse of such has certain consequences, and people are bound to make one accountable for it. True power is also knowing when to call out and stand up for what’s right or wrong, even if sometimes, it is at the expense of great risk of upsetting the sitting powers that be.
While it is true that power stays in the shadows, like an invisible hand that controls every aspect of our waking minute, authentic leaders shine like the sun—inspiring those around them to become more genuine, honest, and willful in service. Often, they reverberate respect without needing to demand it, and emanate empathy because they know how to really see other people, even those that are different from their own stature.
At the end of the day, we will make our own individual choices, and our sitting leaders will make theirs. Yet, we will have to face the consequences of what they have done for us because it will cast a shadow in almost every aspect of our lives. Still, let the choices we are going to make show what is true and what is good, because our personal agency is a power all on its own. After all, even ripples can make waves, and even Rome was not built in a day.
THE BARRISTER 