there is something about command and control that has always bothered me. It’s the pairing… Obviously control is contained in the meaning of command, so in this case, command must be something different in kind from control.
I’ve taken to thinking of control as a pejorative. (taken to is probably utterly wrong and completely out of touch with history, but I digress…)
The pejorative of control is oppression. Command is something more mutual, more noble, more refined… Anyone can control a beast, but it takes skill to command a beast. This is the distinction, skill. Control is a baser skill. Those who, in my experience, could only control rested upon their positional authority and never dared venture into a situation where it might not be enough. Controllers are always afraid they will lose control, commanders command those who follow them, and they are commanders because people want to follow them. Control is a thing, command simply is.
This is the line that I’m dancing around, unable to define… this difference between command and control. You know it if you look for it, but naming it, stacking words up around it like rocks on a grave isn’t possible because it defies naming.
All I know for sure is that anyone who chooses control over command when both are offered, or who pursues control instead of command isn’t to be trusted. Anyone who talks more of controlling the opponent than of commanding the forces against that opponent isn’t to be trusted. And anyone who insists upon control isn’t to be trusted.
Commanders command.