Ideologies: Let us follow the Shepherd to greener pastures

The system's ideology therefore becomes the DNA of the new polity: it sets the course the stream is going to flow, and everybody follows suit. Today's scholars in Human studies love to speak about human agency, as much as they hate to think of inevitability; but it is incredibly difficult to swim against the current. Even the most educated are driven by their love-and-hate emotions - rather than their rational thinking - to make their scientific judgements. It becomes a fool's errand to go against the grain. If the prevailing Public Opinion's current of thought demanded the nation resorted on the atomic bomb to once and for all finish off Imperial Japan, did truman really ever had a choice? Undoubtedly, Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot who actually dropped the bomb, most definitely did not. If he had ever refused, clearly somebody else had done it instead. Judge Aaron Persky, for example foolishly thought the final judgement on the Chanel Miller v. Brock Turner (alleged) sexual assault case laid down on him, and did not get, that our system's fake-feminist ideology would not accept anything less than having Brock Turner burned at the stakes. Hence he became the first judge to be recalled. There was clearly a reason why nobody ever said a word nor raised a finger when some other more docile court gave another young woman an order of protection against her blind husband. Certainly, no human being in his or her right mind would issue an order of protection against a blind person; but we forget, that the System is no human being. Indeed, terrifyingly enough, the bloodcrudling thought rising from all this reasoning is that, while human beings are known to feel love and allow their compassion and humanity to participate in their decision making processes, system ideologies do not. Evidently, system ideologies are coldblooded, heartless 'animals' and do not entertain any feeling, as they push for the most abominable, heinous and monstrous policies and actions. The System is in fact, terrifyingly evil. It will, for instance, keep more people homeless or incarcerated than ever before; completely disregarding the fact that - since folks born to low-class families make up for a ridiculously disproportional percentage of the homeless and incarcerated population - their low socio-economic origin plays a major role in the tragic path their lives end up taking. The System's ideology will hypocritically fake the most disingenuous concern for women's underrepresentation in highly-paid positions, only to hide its ruthless abuse of the lower classes. Clearly, no human being determines that low-class folks should have less opportunities than those born to upper-class families; but the System's ideology does. Your parents do not have enough money to buy the kind of strong reference letter, that will get you to an elite school? You do not have the money to hire the kind of powerful attorney, who is able to secure for you a -get out of jail card-? You do not have enough money to pay for the right treatment to cure your health problems? Well, dude, you only have yourself to blame! You had agency, so take responsibility for it! As we all know, in this land of the free, if you are smart and work hard you will succeed. Therefore, if you fell short, it can only be because you did not work hard enough, or, perhaps, you are kind of dumb.   

If they all follow the same Red-Scare course, who do we blame for the Vietnam War: Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ or Nixon? What about all the American voters, who participated in the American presidential elections during that quarter of a century? Perhaps we should blame the hundreds of thousands of American young men, who gave their lives to such an atrocious war? Or, what about the entire American Journalism that, during those 25 years, encourage all the American people to defend our Democracy and Freedom, and go cast their vote for those Democrat and Republican presidents? Yes, we all look at the last leader to rise to power, but our leader just follows the ideology; unless he is the kind of tyrant, who foolishly dares to defy the Public Opinion. Definitely, at some point it starts feeling as the system ideology has acquired life of its own, and, once it has grown sufficiently, the Revolution will start eating its children... There is no way around it: we just need to come to terms with the reality that, as long as the System's ideology flows from the lips of the upper class, the System is only going to work for those at the top of the society.

Yes, little by little, we are indoctrinated into stopping focusing on ourselves, and starting thinking instead on the collectivity, where it goes without saying that the collectivity will go wherever the head of the society says. As single uncivilized individuals living in Nature, it seems sensible to see procreation as the ultimate aim in life. While men seek to conquer some woman who is willing to give him some descendents; women try to identify the man, who will be better able to help her raising her children. However, as we become a society, little by little we start forgetting our individual natural drives, and the standing of the whole in the environment acquires more and more relevance. We can already see in other social animal species (like, for example, in bees), how it is of benefit to the community to have members, who are not procreation-minded, but are instead focused on other functions. It is so of no surprise, how Ancient Greece's intellectuals elaborated on how homosexuals would make for the best soldiers: as much as a homosexual man himself is likely to be among the first to feel  the utmost aversion against any form of violence, he will be ready to give his life for his lover, if that is what the Gods demanded.  

Clearly, our union is what makes us stronger. If a human being faces off a wild beast such as a lion, it is unclear what way the confrontation is going to go. However, if a big community of humans is matched against an equally-sized group of lions, there is little doubt that humans are going to come out on top. Indeed, humans' strength is our ability to work together. Now, love is what brings us together: we work together because we love and care for each other. Yet, admittedly, love may not always be enough to defeat a big pride of fierce lions; but eventually we may need civilization to ensure victory and undisputed supremacy. Fact of the matter is a community of human beings will rise to unprecedented and unparalleled levels of power, if its members are coordinated and follow a chain of command. In other words, our ascendency does not result from our superior intellect, but because we become coordinated and organized. For instance, if a battalion of soldiers constitutes a more effective fighting force than a band of fierce, uncivilized warriors; it is not because the soldiers are individually smarter than the barbarian warriors, but because soldiers, as civilized individuals, follow a chain of command and therefore fight as one man.       

Importantly, it is the system ideology what has us follow the chain of command. After all, ideologies (any kind of ideology, as a matter of fact) are nothing but a binding mechanism, where the strenth of the union comes determined by the degree to which its members believe in its ideology and or follow it. Clearly, we follow the ideology and work for the union, because it will revert back, or so we believe, to us. Much like with civilization, while it is arguable to what extent the individual members will actually benefit of the union, there is little doubt that the organization will get stronger. That is, whoever or whatever (if anything at all) runs the ideology will get stronger. Keep always in mind: you should not ask what the organization can do for you, but only what you can do for the organization. Soon enough the Revolution will start eating its children...

Indeed, if the ideology needs to be strong in order to survive, no resource can be spared. Everybody has to believe and be committed to the Project. It certainly should not take a rocket scientist to comprehend, that it will be best for everybody, if we all strive to advance the whole; but the system's ideology is nevertheless going to make sure, that the point is not lost on anybody. As Confucius had explained, virtue comes from above and those who do not behave properly should feel ashamed. It is then only smart to indoctrinate the people to identify 'the good' with all what advances the fitness of the whole, whereas 'the bad' is anything that is otherwise detrimental. to the whole. It stands to reason that for any ideology to survive, it will need to define as good people those individuals, who act always with the collectivity's welfare in mind, whereas the bad people are those, who act in complete disregard for the whole and only care about themselves. Interestingly, this principle may help to explain how it was, that the men of war of ancient times, relentlessly fighting for the greater glory of the fatherland, despite their violent ways, became in the eyes of the Ideology the most noble citizens, who in turn will look down their noses with utmost disgust at those greedy merchants, who needed to work to make a living, and were exclusively concern with amassing the greatest personal fortune, at the expense of everybody else's destitution. The French Revolution, however, then turned the tables around: the bourgeois business entrepreneurs rose to power and violence was outlawed. We learned at this time, that violence, in fact, had not been meant to serve God in Its neverending fight against the Devil and his many armies of diabolic slaves, but to be used against the People. On the other hand, awkwardly enough, the relentless pursuit of wealth became now the only true faith serving the nation's glory.   

The rules for the commonfolk, however, have always been much simpler: just bend your head down and obey. If you want to be appreciated and loved by the others, you should give yourself to the collectivity; whereas you should not expect anything but contempt from other people, if you only look after yourself. Yet, is it not exactly that, looking after oneself, what any animal in Nature is supposed to do in order to survive?

Definitely, as sound as the principle certainly is, it all is clearly much easier said than done. Let us be honest, as much as our ethical framework will never allow us to openly admit it, nobody is genuinely focused on the welfare of the society at large, but we are rather more concerned looking after ourselves. Yes, we will fight and die for our community or religiously pay our taxes; but that is only because we really do not see any other option and, oh well, at the end of the day, we all do get the point and believe, that we will benefit and it will pay us off if all goes well for the whole. Still, remarkably, just like everything else, with the passing of time system ideologies have also been refined, become more and more subtler and effective, and found ways to have us all enthusiastically support the system. With the advent of the printing press, Radio, Cinema and Television, as modern system ideologies have grown more and more insidious and pervasive and the System has acquired a tighter grip on our minds and lives, bafflingly enough, the immense majority of the population has become more and more convince, that we have reached "Freedom" and we are only getting freer by the day. As a matter of fact, on Election Day - despite all the contempt we feel for all politicians -, we all go vote, and, as much as it can still be argued, that we cast our vote with our very own selfish interests front and center, at the end of the day, for all what matters to the System and the ideology it grows from, it serves the purpose. 

In a way we can see system ideologies as living beings that - in a fashion similar to DNA or (benign or malign) computer viruses - set up shop in the minds of the members of a community and govern (positively or negatively) the members' individual behaviors and therefore the community's functioning as a whole: as long as we follow the ideology's directions, the System stays alive and continues running. At a minimum, we do reach the conclusion that it is better to be with the System than against the System. At a minimum, we accept to sail with the wind, and be part of and belong to the whole. Conversely, you may wholeheartedly embrace the System's ideological framework and are fully committed to its strengthening and perpetuation. Either way, we all have a sense that we are part of the whole and are willing to work for it. As a matter of fact, it will not be long before we all reach a good understanding, that we are all together in this, we start feeling as one, we belong to the whole and it is only smart to realize, that, if we stay united and work together for the well-being of the whole, it will eventually revert back in our own particular benefit and well-being. Needless to say, but still key to note, the stronger our belief, the steadfaster our adherence to the ideology, the more unconditional, unflinching and relentless our devotion and commitment to the whole, and, most crucially, the stronger and fitter - at least in the short term - the polity will be.

Yes, in the short run; but what about the long run? As much as the system ideology's core slogan will always explain, how it will always revert bak in our own individual benefit if we strive and work for the advancement of the whole, in practice that may not necessarily be the case.. Definitely, the power of the ideology will not always necessarily translate into a stronger society. How often have we spend our entire life following the system's ideology to improve our society, and eventually found out that we have actually gone backwards? Nazi SS members were surely totally convinced, that they were working for the greatness of Germany and the German people, and yet..., it all ended in a total disaster, for the victims of the Holocaust, most definitely, but for the German people as well. 

Clearly, the system ideology is always created by those at the top, in order to cement and consolidate their grip on the people. Today, it is well understood how much more complicated it is to rule a nation as opposed to just conquer it. A few victories on the battlefield are usually enough to conquer a nation; but in order to rule it, it is fundamental to gain control of the ideology running the people's minds. Luckily, we learned early on, that in actuality it is not necessary to go one by one through the entire population, in order to brainwash everybody. Rather, it suffices to co-opt the big men of the country: In the old days, the local aristocracies were allowed some reasonable levels of autonomy, while the sons of the most prominent provincial leaders were sent as hostages to the center of the Empire, where they were educated to embrace the imperial ideology's values. Once they grew up, they went back home to spread the gospel. Today the principle remains basically the same, with the only difference that now the local elites are actually just dying to sent their sons and daughters to our very prestigious, leading universities. Either way, with the local Adult class fully on board, they will then take care of ensuring, that the Children of the client state stay all well indoctrinated at all times. Back in the days of the Ancient Regime, where the system ideology revolved around religion and God appointed the tyrant King to become the father of the nation and take care of the Children, it was still the Church task to educate the population in the word of the Lord. In modern times, with the advent of the press, radio, television and cinama, there is no longer need of relying on a divine figure and dealing with all the complexities, that come along with that (namely, how do we explain the refuting evidence regularly raised by scientific research against the religious doctrine? Do the magnates really want to find the Father of the Nation constantly in their way, - as chivalrously as goofly, ridiculously and pathetically - annoyingly always obstructing and objecting to the Adult class' - as instinctive and irrepressible as rapacious and voracious - systematic preying on and exploitation of His children? Worst of all, what about the tyrant King's periodic bouts of paranoia and subsequent bloody purges of aristocrats, nobles and magnates alike?). Instead, the upper class now employs mass-Media to make sure, that every Child is in the know of how the world was made and how things work. With today's technology and scientific knowledge, it is kind of like flashing and installing an operating system on everybody's mind and then continuing issuing regular updates whenever appropriate. The whole point is that the Children rest assured that the rules of the Cosmology are preserved, everything is in place, and everybody understands his role in life: let there be no doubt about it, as the Church has long explained, King Solomon's decisions were inspired by God and, as today's Media preaches, the judges of our fake-democratic crook system adjudicate the legal disputes among the citizens in strict application of the Law (and, of course, it is just by pkure chance, that they systematically rule in favor of the Adults). If then it seems like now nothing works and our world is slowly falling apart, it is only because of the current plague of unscrupulous, self-serving, double-dealing, corrupt politicians, to whom - as a matter of fact - the Children enthusiastically keep voting in Media-promoted, -propagandized, and -very-much-celebrated fake-democratic elections.

Definitely, a powerful system ideology will have the entire population fully committed to the advancement of the nation and so eager to follow the leadership and command of the head of the society. After all, the whole point of Civilization is that the system ideology empowers the head of the society to extract more and more resources from the populace in order to achieve its objectives. The system ideology will always argue the objective is the improvement of the nation's standing; but, evidently, those at the top will usually have their own particular interpretation of this concept. It is certainly difficult to find any living being, who - as much as it may constantly argue that the objective is the advancement of the whole - does not keep one's interests front and center, while everybody else's wellbeing will not be of much concern. Clearly, at some point, something is going to break.   

Modern professional athletes may also resort on doping, in order to improve their performance, rise over their rivals and dominate the competition. In the short term we will see sunshine and roses all around us; however, when the organism is subjected to excessive stress for long enough time, at some point it is going to break down and fall. Perhaps the next cheater will then take over; but, it is to be expected that eventually it will become clear that helthier and more balanced lifestyles and methods yield better results in the long run.

 Yes, sooner or later the Revolution will come calling and start eating its children. That day, when the ideology goes against you, none of you will have a chance to fight it on your own. A single person stands no chance going against an ideology, for the very same reason that a single person stands no chance going against an organized and disciplined group of people. An ideology can only be defeated by some other stronger ideology. Consequently, when the going starts getting tough, it is time for you all to come up with some other better ideology with which to confront the beast, or you will all inevitably find yourself swept by the tide. 

We all have come to accept, that it is impossible to fix the System. Yet how does a viral micro-organism bring down a whole human being? There is clearly a reason why those at the top of our system are so fearful of social networks, and mass-Media cannot stop looking for ways to scare us against any mechanism whereby the people may be able to exchange ideas freely. In fact, here we can see once more the relevance of the ideology: If we perceive the system as a beautiful human being and portray the micro-organism as a malign virus, we would all get a strong apprehensive feeling against it. Yet, if we see the system as Big Brother and we devise the viral micro-organism as a viral message for freedom of thought and equal-opportunities, we would all be all for it. Needless to say, it all depends on who is telling the story: Julius Caesar may be fighting the evil Senate or Jesus may be preaching brotherly love; but Big Brother will obviously always make the case, that it is an evil wanna-be tyrant trying to overthrow "our beautiful Democracy". Now, at first glance, it would seem good enough to just bring down Big Brother, perhaps it would suffice if we simply stopped voting and therefore avoid supporting Big Brother; but we all need a DNA to stay united, alive and kicking, and feel fearful of what will happen without it. Consequently, in order for the change to succeed, the poisoning ideology has to be replaced with a stronger (hopefully more benign) ideology; that is, an ideology that works for everybody. As a matter of fact, pivotal events in Human History such as Christianity's conquest of the Roman Empire, the Protestant Reformation or the French Revolution should be understood as nothing but a replacement of the system ideology: the people came to assimilate there was a better way to organize their societies. Or, perhaps, it was just that, at some point, a different way to organize the society worked better (at least in the short run).       

Clearly, if we want to understand how does the world work, we need to start by studying Nature's rules and how they work. Complex dynamical systems such as living beings require resources to continue running. This need obviously will sooner rather than later always result in a fierce competition for such resources. Those which are not strong enough will disappear. As Darwin pointed out, complex dynamical systems are continuously transforming themselves in endless different ways, where some transformations turn out to be more successful than others. Obviously, those which did not succeed disappeared and we can only see today those which, for the time being, are fit enough. It is therefore reasonable to argue that the complex dynamical systems we observe today take their current shape, because those which took on different shapes, at some point became unfit and disappeared.

Definitely, like any species' DNA, - to the extent that whatever does not perpetuate itself, is likely to eventually disappear - ideologies compete against each other and do so according to Nature's survival-of-the-fittest rule. In this sense, a suplementary way to understand system ideologies is as a family of plants, whose strategy of survival is based on the production of an addictive and or extraordinarily pleasurable mind-altering substance, that human beings will soon be seeking to grow at home. As the strategy proves successful, inevitably it will not be long before slight mutations in the plant's DNA produce different variations of the mind-altering substance; thus leading to a competition among the new variations for the colonization and control over humankind. Now, system ideologies alter the people's mind in a very particular (not necessarily negative) fashion: they define how the society is going to function. Consequently, if we are able to correctly reason what makes a society more competitive, then we would be able to understand how ideologies evolve to produce that kind of successful societies. Clearly, those societies which are not competitive will disappear; those others which are competitive in the short term, but stagnate in the long run, will first shoot up and subsequently collapse; finally, those societies which follow slower dynamics and take a longer time to thrive, will first need to survive the domination of the faster-dynamics societies, before they can break out in all their splendor. Now, contrary to dominant belief, it certainly does not take a brain scientist to figure out that the societies which will flourish and be more competitive in the long run are those where the system works for everybody, rather than just for those at the top. In point of fact, There is a good case to be made, that the decisive factors are the society's level of equality and equal opportunities: Those communities where some degree of inequality is allowed are more competitive than totally egalitarian communities. However, if the citizens stop enjoying equal opportunities, the community will only burst for a short run and fall subsequently; whereas the preservation of equal opportunities ensures that prosperity sustains over time.