Because I say so: How power warps truth and changes minds

LET'S face it, growing up, there’s something fuzzy and comforting that comes with having older, bigger cousins.

- GREY MUTTER BY LANCE FREDERICKS

Older siblings are fine, but the problem there is that you live under one roof and they quickly learn how to wind you up. Older cousins, however, they came with an aura. Unlike siblings, they could ask you to do anything, and you'd gladly comply.

It was as if they had this enchantment, a magical, inexplicable power over you. A magical power that would get a group of us younger fans to chew on a piece of the elephant ear plant. For the uninformed, in this particular plant you find calcium oxalate, which are tiny, sharp crystals that sting like fury upon contact with the skin or mouth.

Ja nee ... what the powerful get the plebs to do!

But for the record, our bigger cousin didn’t know better. He also chewed the leaf, he also got stung by the calcium oxalate. He also howled in pain ... we howled together!

Innocent as that moment was, it reminds me of something far less harmless: the way power is wielded in the world today.