Alon Mizrahi’s has been the only voice I’ve been hearing that captures what we are facing today. His central point is that once a people get caught up in seeking domination – and calling it “Dominion” does nothing to hide its ugliness – there is no end but murder/suicide. What this presents the rest of us with is the ongoing destruction of our own capacities to maintain our own humanity. In a society whose “leaders” have been captured by the imperatives of domination we are immersed in horror.
Is belief intrinsically tied to domination? It appears so. Belief, according to its own principals, must be defended. This defense is actually the projection of a demand. The demand that what is believed must be obeyed. Holding beliefs we are tied to domination. Challenging beliefs we find ourselves in a fight where the other side will not stop short of dominating. Tied up in beliefs and this intrinsic will-to-dominate we are more than willing to deny anything true, anything real. This sends us down that path towards murder/suicide.
My greatest misunderstanding and longest lasting confusion as a child of the Twentieth Century has been around the question of authority and the defense of so-called laudable belief. The greatest gulf between those tied to domination and anyone else lies at this point. While some approach questions as opportunities for illumination; others see any question as an attack that must be put down. While a widely accepted belief may appear laudable once we enter the game, defending belief, we are doing the work of the dominator.
This is where the confusion about WWII comes from. Surely, fighting fascism and liberating those under its heel was/is a laudable belief! Surely those willing to join such a fight are on the side of the Good! Or, as we all like to say now, “on the right side of history…’” Allies and worthy of trust!
Then why did the “defeat of fascism” turn immediately into the battle to defeat communism? And then into embracing an ever more blatant Neo-Imperialism, aka, “The American Century?” From our vantage point today it’s clear that the fight against fascism was a factional one. We weren’t fighting against fascism. Just against “their version of it.” As soon as their defeat was declared all but the most visibly odious fascists were welcomed into the American Century. From NASA to Madison Avenue they were welcomed as experts in the arts of domination.
Where we stand now it is essential that we not repeat this pattern. The Living Earth itself cannot survive yet another round of this cycle.
This may appear easy enough. “The enemy of my enemy,” and all that…. But this is exactly where the problem lies.
Mizrahi’s concern that we appear paralyzed by the spectacle of domination at this stage in its progression does point at a salient condition. Everyone in any “leadership” position, outside of perhaps Yemen, appears unable; if not actively unwilling; to do anything to change our course. They are trapped within domination and belief. To expect anything else from them would be to chase after a fantasy. This is how the corruption Thought has wrought plays out. Not just in the cartoonish superficial corruption of those lined up at the usual troughs and the worship of greed and the greediest amongst us. Its most pernicious reach is in the way it leaves all those who saw themselves “on the right side of history” and full of laudable belief, finding themselves incapable of even seeing what they are bringing about.
MAGA are dumb! Sounds reasonable. But what’s the excuse for the rest of it?
It’s not an excuse; but, they cannot see and; if they could see; they cannot effectively respond to a shared bankruptcy of legitimacy.
About the only good signs I can see are that we haven’t collectively rushed into another War to End All Wars. Although much of what the “right side of history” talkers go on about does seem aimed directly at recreating 1914 as a “solution” to finding ourselves arriving at 1936-39. What is so far missing are the throngs of beaming recruits rushing to enlist and, “get ‘their licks in!’ before the war’s over by Christmas….”
Besides Mizrahi there are a few voices out there looking directly at the question of belief and its effects on humanity in a way that does appear different from previous anti-clerical drives.
There is at once a great fear and a worship of senseless death.
I wrote what’s above about a month ago. Since then the one lasting certainty that does not require a belief to maintain is that there is no one out there who is going to rush in and “save us.” What makes this even more terrifying is that there are plenty waiting to rush in to fill a void if and when the current flavor of fascism falters. “Bipartisanship” remains the battle cry of those who will insist to our collective dying breath that war, destruction, and “profit” remain at the center of human life. No matter the cost.
This is what total bankruptcy looks like. Every institution and every organizing principal behind every established…, society? Is broken and irremediable at its core. This has been true for perhaps a few thousand years. It has certainly been true throughout the lifespans of everyone alive today.
We mourn this. This adds to our paralysis. Along with that dream of saviors…. Let’s see how the “Rapture” goes when all those believers get their deepest most depraved wish and discover they are still stuck here. Mired in their hate.
Every day brings new terrors. It’s harder and harder for the true perpetrators to successfully hold up their scapegoats and expect to be able to cover their guilt.
Another month, and the manic energies focused on ROI….
Return on Investment. Rhymes with the French word for King….
And now it’s November! This post was started in early July!
Part of the trouble I’ve been having writing has been an expectation of timeliness. Of trying to fit into an ever-shortening “News Cycle.” Meanwhile, posts I wrote in 2009, 10, 13…, sound like they were written about what’s going on now.
They were. They are. But whatever value they have came from their being outside of their time.
I may be getting back into a “swing;” whether that plays out or not I do suggest that you dip into my earlier posts in Horizons of Significance if you have the chance. So much of what felt “out there” in those years may now appear in a different light.
Belief, faith, religion? Gott mit uns as the belt buckle reads. To those that scratch their heads in disbelief about how people can be thinking something, ignoring evil, I say it is easiest to think of that belief as a religion, time wasted in trying to change minds.