Controlling the Tribes

Despite my attempts to believe in the great dreams of equality in society and civilization that young people learn from textbooks and idealistic teachers, I am becoming increasingly dissillusioned with the facts that are constantly being presented to me. There are so many events that are taking place around the world that we relenquish our belief that we have any ability to monitor and ensure our best interests are being taken care of. Whose best interests? The best interests of a free humanity itself.

Lets connect the dots, starting with the big economic issues. Who really stands to gain from economic competition? Nations are organized by tribal leaders, who are surprisingly well versed in ancient history and philosophy, to be the engines of their racial and darwinistic paradigms on survival in the world. We should not be surprised that all the psychological science that has been researched this century is not being used by those who have access to this information. If in a psychology textbook one can learn how to influence the mind of an unguarded individual, who is to say that the marketing and advertising executives are not taking advantage of that information. These executives are compelled by the pressures of competition to manipulate this type of knowledge. We are foolish to believe that the media is unbiased and neutral in its presentation of the world, and we have to remember that the presentation of knowledge is just as important as the knowledge itself. It would be ok if this was our only problem. As Chomsky and others have pointed out, the manufacturing of consent is epidemic in the "free" world today. George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Philip K. Dick, imagined the type of mind control we have to be constantly vigilant against today. The leaders of the nations today are not thinking about iPod's and the other engineered props of life that keep the masses going, but rather follow through with the philosophies of survival that their mentors provide them with. If you wanted to make sure your tribe surived and won the world so that you could make sure everything went your way, how do you go about making that happen?

The Hegelian dialectic has been used as a tool of control, direction, and manipulation before Hegel made it explicit in his formal thesis, antithesis, and synthesis summary. It is also known as the problem, reaction, and solution paradigm. With careful strategy you can convince almost anyone to move in a certain direction using this approach. How does it work in today's world? Well, like the ancient roman courts, you only need to ask one question, qui bono? Who stands to gain from the direction that the world is travelling in. I don't want it to head towards war and sectarian strife, and I'm sure you don't either. But seemingly against all odds, crazy shit continues to happen, and it makes people afraid. Lets think about this some more.

The belief and possibility of eugenics and racial tribalism did not completely die with Hitler's regime. There is a schizophrenic approach to racism in the world today. Most people have encountered so many exceptions to the possiblity of a single supreme race that it is very hard to seriously believe in it. But the question is not so black and white, manichean if you will, than a cursary glance makes it seem. A second step up from a simplistic racial paradigm is that of the tribal paradigm. Hard evidence forces people to believe in the fact that they may not belong to the dominant race in any single metric that a racial supremacy ideology requires. But evidence is not required in the belief of a tribal supremacy, because tribes are more united by perspective than physiological similarities. That is not to say that racism does not play a part in the identity of a tribe, but it is simultaneously a lesser and greater priority that can be used or made subservient to other goals. Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Chanakya have not been remembered by history for no reason, and their existence is a testament to the primal ideologies of man.

In America today we are beginning to see the reemergence of an orchestrated and organized sectarian strife between European immigrants and Mexican immigrants. Overseas we have long overdue strife between the Israelites and the Palestinians. Organized strife between the subcontinent's Hindus and Muslims. Media bashing of the Latin American democracies. Perceived demagogory in Iran and North Korea. It is foolish to assume that all this strife is the spontaneous product of economic, security, and cultural woes only. None of the people in these battles ever gains anything from their commitment. Rather it is a diversion from the more important questions that need to be asked regarding the direction of humanity, because the evidence is clear that the renaissance of freedom that society has achieved could possibly be eclipsed again as it has so often in the short history of man's civilization.