This communication is number 1669. In keeping with recent references to plague hit London in the 1600s I, again, give a brief rundown of things that happened in this year. Pepys stopped writing because his eyesight was failing much like Donald Pleasance in The Great Escape, Newton is appointed as a professor and Robert Boyle discovers phosphorus. Along with all that there was plenty of life and death as all those who played insignificant roles in society aren’t recorded.
In another day of discussing society with poorly constructed arguments and leaps of consciousness I will explain the brainwashing of our society to maintain the current social and political structure. I was out on a run yesterday, it’s where I do plenty of thinking while also listening to podcasts. Being in the open and feeling good, or at least healthy, or at least as though I am doing something healthy is really good for clearing the mind. I was thinking about how too many films and stories all cover this idea that we are born to a particular level in our society. These stories we hear and films we watch reinforce this subconscious acceptance of “our place in society”.
From Where Do We Get Authority?
At a basic level we all need to be told what to do and the best systems work when you respect that person telling you what to do. You want to know that the “manager” has the experience and understanding along with the intellectual capability to think deeply about how things work. You want the “manager” to be fair and allow you some freedom. You want someone who knows the job and has been appointed to that position because they have some capability or understanding or talent beyond what you have. If the “manager” is respected by the workers then they will do their jobs for that manager and the “manager” will look good because they have a good set of outcomes from their workers. Authority comes from the respect that the workers give the manager through the manager’s skills and experience. Have you ever worked for someone you don’t respect? You might do as you are told but it will be a miserable experience.
So, we want authority to come from someone/thing who understands better than the workers and someone/thing who is able to be supportive and responsive and understanding. If you have those qualities then maybe you should be a “manager”.
The Worst Case
In the worst possible case scenario you claim authority through some vague system which you also happen to run. You might be a good “manager” you might also be a shit “manager”. At the very worst level you claim authority through the idea that you have that job and are therefore better than everyone else. You convinced those who appointed you that you are fantastic where, in reality, you suck and are shit at managing. Your life will then become a series of constructions to create the results that mean you look great but you are also destroying everything in the process.
If you want ultimate authority over many people then you claim it was given to you by god. That way, if you run the religion, you also run the entire system of authority. In the UK pretty much everything is owned by the monarch [legally] because god says so. The ultimate authority is deferred to god via the queen because you can’t get a higher authority than the imaginary god. God is the ultimate scapegoat and giver of power. Look at the pope. Put there by a human voting system but is god’s representative on earth because “god”. It’s brilliant. It’s also terrible. If you have to claim authority by referring to some divine right or prophecy then you suck and should try fucking off. Which god? Whose god? Not mine. I don’t recognise your authority. Oh, by the way, I write this just after Cardinal Pell’s conviction was quashed by the Australian Supreme Court through “lack of evidence”. Fuck the pope and the catholic church – evil cabal of child rapists.
Top Down
If you want to claim authority over people you either do it through talent and skills or you claim intangible things which apparently give you provenance. So, you can claim that god speaks to you and only you and everyone needs to do as they are told. You can claim the authority through birthright [whatever the fuck that is in reality] or you can just shout louder than everyone else. We have this sense in our society that if you are born from the correct vagina and parentage that you are therefore more qualified than someone else to take the power. This is rather strange. It doesn’t follow. There have been so many family dynasties it would be impossible to list them here. But let’s look at one in particular.
The queen is the top person in our country. Why? Because she was born to it. She’s lived her life in “service” to the country and commonwealth. Why? Because she was born to the right father and mother [even that’s not needed as illegitimate people have power too if they grow up in the right environment]. But she’s been brilliant? Has she? How do we know that? How do we rate that? Isn’t against her human rights to be placed in this position before she entered this world screaming? The queen’s authority lies in her birth and the fact this in this constitutional theocratic monarchy god happens to have said so. She’s the leader of the state religion. What?
Most stories you heard as a child reinforce this idea of family being your station in society. You are successful and deserve respect if you come from the correct family. You are in servitude to those people if you are born elsewhere. Firstly, there’s god and his zombie son Jesus. The provenance comes from the seed of the father. The right to lead and to have the power comes from who your father is. The queen is who she is because of her father. We have hereditary Lords in this country for fuck’s sake. They are called Lord. The title passes on through birth. We fascinate over who our ancestors were. We have TV programmes about who you think you are where you can claim legitimacy from the history of your family. People seek out that link between them and long dead people of power because our society is so bought into this idea that who fucked who years ago is really important.
There are stories about adopted children really being from a dead family of aristocrats. There are stories of knights marrying princesses. There are stories of kings and queens and those with power having gained that through being accidentally born to the correct family. Why do you think the bible spends ages proving the ancestry of Jesus? He’s descended from David. Who was descended from . . . . I don’t actually know or give a shit, probably Abraham? Legitimacy comes from your parents, wrongfully. All of our culture is given over to being submissive to the wrong people based on DNA.
Stories
This was my original thought while having a run yesterday. I pondered the film series Star Wars. Now, I used to be a big Star Wars fan but managed to let go a few years after being upset at the prequel trilogy. But let’s look at the important parts:
- Darth Vader – evil doer until a last minute recant – virgin birth. That’s the great thing about christianity, you can be as evil as you want as long as you seek forgiveness just before you die and accept jesus as the saviour. Having him divinely concepted was a stroke of genius
- Royal Family – Leia was a princess born to a queen. Legitimacy from her mother.
- Inherited – Luke gets his powers from his father. Has the right to be a leader through his birthright. Gets discovered and his “true” destiny is revealed. By the way, FUCK DESTINY.
- Kylo Ren – gets his powers from his mother. He’s a royal. It’s his birthright.
- Afterlife – if you are good enough you get to live forever as a ghost?
- Rey – powers from her father/grandfather I can’t remember. Taken away from her family and finds the truth of her “birthright”.
Power is inherited through the family system. You can look at too many films and see this story played out again and again. All of this reinforces how society thinks. It shapes how we behave. How many films have you seen where the son or daughter claims their “birthright” and becomes the leader or manager? How often is this scenario played out in kids’ stories? How often do you reinforce this? Why? Try and think a little more about the things you see and read. Question how much of it is there to maintain the “structure” of society. Question those who defend the “systems”.
Think about why the following statements are required be be written down and whether you think they are true for your life?
Article 1 – All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2 – Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
etc.
If you read more on this you’ll start to see how everything works against you. Our current society doesn’t do the best for everyone. It exists to serve those who are born to the power. So, I am now officially one of those weirdo people who I was concerned about when I was younger. The type of person who thinks of society and sees a massive problem with the reinforcement of its structure. Time for a beer I think.