A common idea in AA meetings is that we are powerless over people places and things, that we are powerless over everything. I even heard an AA speaker say that the only reason 'they' did not say that explicitly in Step One in the Big Book was not to frighten people off. I have not found any evidence that Bill Wilson, when writing those early chapters, deliberately concealed this as a key element of AA doctrine.
Just because something is repeated often does not make it true.
Just because something is repeated by AA grandees does not make it true.
Let's look at what power is (excerpts from the Oxford English Dictionary):
Ability to act or affect something strongly; physical or mental strength; might; vigour, energy; effectiveness.
Control or authority over others; dominion, rule; government, command, sway.
Capacity to direct or influence the behaviour of others; personal or social influence.
More generally: ability, capacity.
Now let's ask some questions:
Do people act and /or affect things strongly?
Do people have physical or mental strength, etc.?
Do people have control or authority over others?
Do people direct and / or influence the behaviour of others?
Do people have abilities and capacities?
Self-evidently, yes.
If I had no power, I could not type these words; I could not open my eyes; I could not speak.
We have immense power: without power, we could do no ill nor good.
The question is not whether we have power but what we have power over, and whether or not we have the skill and means to wield our inherent power wisely.
I have power over my beliefs, my thinking, and my behaviour, and these in turn affect the world around me and others. This means that I have power over people, places, and things. This power is not absolute: I cannot change the nature of things, and there are other interacting powers. But for anyone who believes they are powerless over others: act kindly or act meanly and see if the person responds differently. If they respond differently, you are exercising power.
Because of the peculiar quirk of alcoholism, I needed to access and need to maintain that access to a Higher Power to stay sober: there was a catastrophic anomaly in my belief around alcohol, the notion that a drink was a good idea, which I could not dislodge and disempower alone. It has been dislodged and disempowered, and stays that what if I maintain a fit spiritual condition.
It is also true that, when acting out in some way, I have lost the ability to direct the power that I have. In that sense, I am powerless. But I am not helpless over whether I remain in that state. I have agency over whether I use the tools of the programme and spirituality more generally to retake the reins.
Without a recognition of our individual significance in the world, for good or for ill, we cannot discharge our moral obligations. Abdicating that responsibility under the guise of faux spirituality is both cynical and dangerous. Instead, I endeavour to respect the fact I have been given power by the universe and to use that power in line with the Higher Power's will.