Power and Ulysses pacts.

The corrupting influence of power has been on my mind a lot lately, both on a global scale, within smaller communities, and personally. I'm not going to discuss the global stuff here so let's start with why it's been on my mind personally and where I'm coming from.

I organise some social kink events and run a Discord for marginalised kinky folks. I am also starting to do some kink education. This inherently confers some power onto me. People have told me that they don't have to vet me because of these things, that I must be trustworthy and safe, that I must know everything, etc. I am hyper aware of how easy it would be to slide into viewing myself in that same way and how tempting it could become to use that power in awful ways, even accidentally. I have seen well respected kinksters fall into that trap all too often - I think most of us have seen it with someone regardless of the communities we run in.

So I have found myself thinking of ways to preemptively stop that from happening; things I can put in place to ensure that I am held accountable and am not tempted or able to use that power in questionable ways. This was how I discovered the Ulysses pact. Named after an Ancient Greek man who, knowing that there were sirens in the water who would lead him astray but wanting to hear their song, plugged his men's ears with wax and had them tie him to the ship's mast.
The Sirens sang and Ulysses tried to break free but he was saved by his earlier decision - he remained tied to the mast and his crew would not release him.

My Ulysses pact.

Learning from the opinions and experiences of others with far more experience in this area, I have come to a couple of conclusions about ways forward personally:

Create a council or group to spread decision making and allow for all those in positions of power to be held accountable.
This is something I am working on, and continues to be a challenge as I am not great at social stuff, which has sadly meant I have been taken in by questionable people on more than one occasion. Trying to balance bringing in people to a position of trust while also being careful not to put the community at risk due to my own struggles around recognising bad behaviour and red flags quickly is frustrating. I also find myself second guessing my motives a lot; "do I mistrust this person for legitimate reasons, or because I'm wary of ceding power?"

Mention when teaching and regularly in community spaces that nobody is above being vetted and, in fact, you should vet those with power even harder.
I do this often and out of habit. It is often in the intro when I teach and I make sure to also mention that people should get their info from multiple sources. Vetting wise, friends have told me off on more than one occasion for recommending people speak to people who I know do not agree with my ethics or how I go about things in order for them to have a well rounded opinion of me. I am still learning where the line is between "transparency and accountability" and "self sabotage."

I am still working on what other things I can put in place to protect both myself and the community from myself and the corruption that so commonly comes with power. I would love to hear what you've put in place or seen used successfully, and to have a broader discussion about how we avoid the many issues that often come with bestowing power on humans.