Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again.
When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes.

 PBS is using the 25^th anniversary of Les Miserables for their fundraising push this spring.  I called, I bought.  Hey, it's my favorite musical of all time and I got the DVD of the 25^th anniversary performance held in London last October. 

I received my DVD last week.  Fabulous stuff.

Les Mis is set during the French Revolution.  As I watched and listened to what essentially is its theme song, it struck me how meaningful the words are to the world today...in Libya...in Egypt...in Syria...in Iraq...in Yemen...in Iran.

And how the words would have resonated with Americans in 1776.

Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free.

I began to think, too, of tyrannical leadership that bludgeons people with fear, and how these leaders fool themselves into thinking they have power. 

Position gives one authority, but it doesn't give one power.

As long as leaders have position and authority they certainly have a tool in which to make others obey their rules.  But they only have it because they have a bigger gun than everyone else.

They'll find out sooner or later how weak their grip on authority is, and how little power they really have.  As soon as the people they hold sway over find any leverage at all they will exploit the breech and bring them down.

That's a fact that plays out over and over and over and over again...in nations...in businesses...in families...in life.
 

Will you give all you can give so that our banner may advance?
Some will fall and some will live will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France.
 

But power is different. 

Power is predicated upon people wanting to be led by you.  When you have a group of people who believe in you and want to follow you, it creates energy. 

And then when you gather that energy and give it direction...that's power. 

And it's near unassailable.