Social Power Statements of "Yertle the Turtle"

One could say that the sort of power Yertle aspired to (ruling all he could see, house bush, cow, etc.) was pathetic and puny in size, and we all can see he had no control except over his people. And so if we apply this logic to our levels of power, which we consider grand, would it not also appear small to someone with a larger perspective? So the power that dictators and all government forms are limited to is power over people, through percieved power in other areas. Our institutions have power if only we think they do, as demostrated by Mack in the story.

Mack has only to "burp", all the turtles in the stack for that matter have only to cause some minor dislodging wobble, for the entire enterprise and Yertle's power to come crashing down. Yet it takes a good deal of time for any of them to take that step. For the turtles higher in the stack, and so figuratively in a higher position, toppling the stack poses a threat to their interests, namely not falling a long way down. They have no more power that Mack, just a mixed sort of luck in that they do not have cracking shells due to weight. If they cause the crash they fall nearly as far as Yertle. But Mack is at the very bottom and has nothing to lose, provided no one lands on him. And anyway that could simply be a quicker end to what was already happening, forces causing in half a second what would have happened in 2 days or less.

So why does Mack not immediately shift? Because he has given his faith as it were to the institution that gives Yertle power. It is typical of humans and turtles in this case to create a way of assigning power that leaves no probable vacuum, and have a predictable and orderly way of determining it. Which is preferable to leaving power assignation to uncertain and chaotic chance. But established methods have no capability if people do not believe in their correctness. So Mack and all the other turtles are acting in accordance to social conditioning deemed necessary to maintain order; they obey authority, despite its current despotic wielder.