Our
natural ecology is being routinely destroyed for profit. How are we
supposed to survive without it? The delusion of neoliberalism is that
there is an unlimited source of wealth. The biggest delusion however,
is the belief that people are going to continue to take this
punishment forever. There's a feeling that because they own the
police forces and the armies, that they can maintain control
indefinitely. An oddity arising from this is the fact that they're
hoping to privatise the security services and lower recruits' living
standards and salaries and still maintain control! (Good
luck with that!) My fear is that revolution will lead to a
totalitarian state with innocents being imprisoned and murdered. The
leadership will appoint the most despotic individuals perceiving them
to be some kind of heroic alternative. Then we return to a further
history of deprivation and want for the many whilst the few benefit!
Freud argued that the narcissistic tendency within moves to the
'right' in searching for control and security. Our natural tendency
is to have strict rules and to know that “all bases are covered”!
Leaving nothing to chance, we can be safe in the knowledge that our
futures are predetermined. When things go wrong we need to cast blame
on anything that appears to be operating “outside” of the rules.
Durkheim also argued for strict social control. His famous “Study
In Suicide” seemed to evidence such a position. There were less
suicides in strict Catholic countries and communities because of the
invariable social controls of the religions.
When
confronted with economic collapse and political insecurity, Germans
and Austrians needed something to blame. Propaganda and rhetoric led
many of them to look to the Jews who, in a false historic sense,
“broke the rules”. They were the first to employ usury to make
profit, which in the Christian doctrine was a sin. They were, en
masse, accused (wrongly) of crucifying Christ and were finally
“convicted” of deliberately impoverishing Gentiles by owning the
banking system! They broke enough of the social rules to be condemned
to genocide! It was an easy task for Hitler to galvanise Germans to
war by declaring her peoples the perfect beings who should rightly
claim their place as the “controllers” of the world.
We
see that, as a result of economic insecurity across Europe, a stark
rise in neo-fascism. In Britain we have UKIP, BNP, EDL, and various
other ultra-right groups enticing working class people with anecdotal
nonsense devoid of any fact or truth, but reflecting an inner
(narcissistic) need to control. Neo-Nazis are raging across Eastern
Europe with young people raging against that “something”
inexplicably damaging their lives and taking away their
opportunities. All seeking to blame “outsiders” for their
misfortune. Blinded by false promises of “ownership”.
The
danger in all of this is that we're heading towards another World
War. And this one WILL be the war to end wars! China verses Japan,
the US verses China and North Korea, Pakistan verses India, Europe
verses Africa, Russia and the UK verses the Middle East, Israel
verses Palestine. Tensions are rising across the globe. And largely
because of trade agreements. Monetary arrangements between competing
economies ruled by small numbers of individuals and corporations
seeking global control of wealth! Not, as we might be propagandised
into believing, for competing ideologies and religion.
I'm
an atheist. When I first considered the destructive aspects of
religion, I believed that their only concern was world domination.
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, in all their forms and sects, seemed to
be fighting each other throughout history for ideological supremacy.
Catholics verses Protestants, Sunnis verses Shiites, and so on. But I
now know I was wrong. Although the people may have been fighting for
something they were told to believe in, the rulers were hoping for
victory to further their power and influence. And more importantly,
wealth! Wealth and resources are what wars are all about. Underlying
all the evangelical wailing and preaching is the hope that enough
gullible people will go out and fight their “enemies” and make
their “leaders” rich. Greed is what starts wars. Anything else,
be it religion, or political persuasion, is propaganda. Feed the
ignorant masses enough of what they want to hear and we can rule the
world!
Right
now, I'm seeking to enlighten myself about these matters. My Facebook
newsfeed is full of stories about how greed is killing both the
planet and most of its inhabitants. I'm exploring the psychology
behind all of this. Things like Narcissistic Personality Disorder,
fear, psychopathy, empathy, emergence, group dynamics and emotion.
What makes us human? What makes some people want to kill others
without fear, or remorse? What makes business leaders believe in an
unlimited supply of wealth? What makes spies and military personnel
operate against their better judgement? What makes a suicide bomber?
What makes people so gullible? I know some of the answers to those
questions but my real question would be: How can we change these
things?
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