Updated: 10/19/14 What if Black America Were a Country?
Updated: 9/29/14 More on pigmentation and its causes
Updated: Lack of Gene Diversity: A Problem? 6/12/15
Updated: 9/29/14 "The "Other" in Genocide and Race" BBC Study
Updated: 8/22/14 Race as an excuse to feed off the poor in cities in the US?
Updated: 8/20/14 Does Ferguson Fit This Model?
Updated: 8/15/14 How elites control populations.
Updated: 8/14/14 How the ability to discriminate has been institutionalized down the centuries.
Updated: 8/12/14 Race as a recent concept in history and patterns of discrimination going back thousands of years and why.
Let’s Talk About Race-What are the Facts?
If some of you have followed my blogs, books PDF’s will note I have a passion for topics I am curious about and I strive to get to the bottom of any issue or topic I undertake. l do so by having a look for myself after carefully looking at the ideas of others as well.
Now it is time to look at this touchy issue of race.
No topic has so divided American society and American history and, indeed, if you look across the millennia we come away asking the question what is it all about and how has it been dealt and/or resolved down the centuries?
My approach is to look at the issue from a slightly different perspective by asking the initial question: what have been rationales and bases of discrimination in and among groups in societies understanding thatrace is just one example among many?
Now discrimination has been evident among humans and even animals and is seen in animal groups as well as human groups.
Plato argued that humans have their own inherent natures and the well run city-state should be constructed to have each citizen, slave and warrior assigned to their own appropriate group to match their inner "natures."
Plato reasoned that some people have naturally “warrior” temperaments and ought thereforeto be assigned to the warrior class and trained to defend the city state.There were slave groups, philosopher kings and “producer” groups.
But lets do a quote here:
“An ideal society consists of three main classes of people—producers (craftsmen, farmers, artisans, etc.), auxiliaries (warriors), and guardians (rulers); a society is just when relations between these three classes are right. Each group must perform its appropriate function, and only that function, and each must be in the right position of power in relation to the others. Rulers must rule, auxiliaries must uphold rulers’ convictions, and producers must limit themselves to exercising whatever skills nature granted them (farming, blacksmithing, painting, etc.) Justice is a principle of specialization: a principle that requires that each person fulfill the societal role to which nature fitted him and not interfere in any other business.”
Now this an idea which has come to underpin all of western society. The three classes are the military, industry and other producers and those who have the right to rule, usually a small elite.
This was Plato’s “just society” and we are taught these very principles and ideas to this very day. There have been variations of these themes where the “rulers:” were priests, or the military or “producers”but the Platonic model has held to this very day with variation. Plato called this specialization modelnot only “just” but the very model of Justice itself.
The problem with all of this is who decides who is to be rulers of society and upon what basis? Plato did not really have an answer to this question of who decides who gets to be a ruler and upon what basis?
Societies, of course, have come up with their own answers to this question.
Here are a few answers we have seen in history.
Rulers ought to be the best and the brightest-the Meritocracy.
Rulers are decided by armies, where might makes right.
Rulers ought to be those with the most money.
Rulers can be decided by birth: Kings, dynasties, intermarriage, divine appointment, for example priests or cult leaders, clan leaders, individual combat, or by various forms of election, democratic election or by specificcliques and small groups .
Birth also included being born into particular status, i.e. slave, peasant, untouchable, vassal, race, or ethic group, all of these have been utilized in history as rationales and to assign access to wealth, assign power to ruling groups and as a rationale to deny the same to others.
The bottom line question we engage is that of how, historically, have societies’ rulers rationalized the treatment of others in society and their decisions about that treatment?
More tomorrow where we will focus specifically on the issue of how race does and has played into and among these factors.
We first take a look at pigmentation as a starting point because in modern times, this has been a code and enforcement mechanism: one’s color, or even shade of color, largely defines one’s status in society.
Race as a concept is a relatively recent concept dating essentially from the time of Christopher Columbus.
It was then argued that peoples of the new world were essentially a different race, which, of course, we know is not the case. Human genes show all humans have essentially the same genes. Differences in pigmentation, for example, are reviewed in above video on the same topic and in other videos cited above.
But lets just get the gist of the matter for now and then move on to a deeper analysis historically across thousands of years.
"The word "race", interpreted to mean common descent, was introduced into English in about 1580, from the Old French rasse (1512), from Italian razza, which may have been derived from the Arabic Word "ras" "رأس" meaning the head of someone or something. In this context, "ras" points to the root or the head of selected species. The etymology can be further traced back to Latin gens or Arabic "genat" "جينات" meaning clan, stock or people and genus meaning birth, descent, origin, race, stock, or family, and cognate with Greek genos (γένος) "race, kind," and gonos "birth, offspring, stock [...]."[1] This late origin for the English and French terms is consistent with the thesis that the concept of "race" as defining a small number of groups of human beings based on lineage dates from the time of Christopher Columbus. Older concepts, which were also based at least partly on common descent, such as nation and tribe entail a much larger number of groupings."
Historically, most concepts of discrimination really only date from the onset of the citification process where cities were dominated by elites who clearly used concept of race to discriminate themselves from the populations they ruled and individuals from each other; such justifications rationalizing their own right to rule.
Looking to mold populations into armies for fighting and into accepting their rule, elites, then and now, have used the many techniques, the most prominent of which I describe as creating in the population of the concept of the "other." "Other" has been defined for thousands of years and that person, that group, that culture, which is not like us: foreign, dangerous.
This is not small distinction, as we shall note below, because defining "other" in these terms also identified who could be killed, murdered, dispossessed, sacrificed, raped and/or forced into slavery.
The evidence is clear, citified elites defined the "Other" as;
1. The mentally ill
2. Women and girl babies. Thousands exposed upon birth by the Romans, thousands sacrificed by the Phoenicians. Women were, Carthage (a Phoenician colony were required by religion to go the temple were they were obliged to have sex with men for whatever coinage was offered.
Soldiers, for virtually the entire history of humankind, would conquer a people or city, rape the women and as a deliberate strategy, of killing off the lineage of the conquered people, and replacing that lineage with that of the conquering armies. The Russians did this to German women, the Chinese, the Japanese, virtually every army does this to the women withthe acquiescence of their generals.
3. Those of different tribes and/or neighbors. They were apparently referred to as "barbarians" a word in use from Egyptian times to modern times. The others were animals, dirty, were blacks, the Irish, the Italians, the Germans, the Japanese (who were put into concentration camps)_ the Chinese, virtually every ethnic group which came to America and all were discriminated against from the very start. That, of course, changed for some groups over time and for some there was no change at all in the example of American blacks, because such discrimination, was easier, political and profitable to white populations seeking to keep blacks as cheap labor then and now.
Let’s cite a few videos on all of this:
First this as a part of what I call the "Sacrifice" tradition and our dark cannabalism past.
Let's look into this more closely ask how has all of these patterns been maintained over the centuries. How have elites managed it. Why hasn't it simply died out as the world has become smaller and smaller. Discrimination mechanisms and racial politics have grown, it would seem, not diminished. Why?
8/12/14
Now the first question is how have elites managed to maintain domination in so many different societies over the millennia?
Here are some of the answers:
Citification helped enormously. Having thousands of people in one place to do your bidding facilitated control over the population. Scattered around the country-side or having populations be predominately nomadic had the opposite effect; if you can't find the population, you can't control them, or at least it is more difficult.
Citification made control through the military and or thugs operating directly on the population easier, made terror tactics more effective, in that, if you could have resistors, killed, stoned, sacrificed in public this had the effect of frightening the majority into submission.
This factor continues to be effective to the present day in our public excutions.
Note much of this was not possible in the pre-city period. Scattered bands fiercely resisted domination, as the history of so many countries will attest. They were referred to as "barbarians" by city dwelling elites, animals to be enslaved or killed. That attitude still persists to the present day.
Another factor for control was that, with the creation of the city-state, a state of constant war between these city states down the centuries has been apparent.
Constant population growth meant elites could and needed to engage in constant wars over resources, over power, for plunder, slaves, women, gold and the rest. Citification made wars, especially long wars, possible and had, and still do, entrench power into the hands of elites themselves not their subjects.
Stone-age people, who survived on this planet for 40,000 years prior to cities, did not war. They raided, but large scale war was rare for the reason that it was too risky to lose even one member of the clan, such was the criticality of each individual to survival.
As I have detailed else, there are, and were, genetic factors at play as well. In society after society elites, often displayed an astounding capacity for ruthlessness, a trait I have sought to explore in terms that psychopathic individuals tend to take over in city situations, in what I have described as a situation where our human-chimp genes predominate over our bonobo genes.
Just a theory at this point but the evidence from genetics makes this idea more and more feasible with each discovery.
However, of the several sources of continuing elite power down the millennia is their absolute mania to maintain their power by institutionalizing it is one of the the major strategies they have utilized which accounts for the longevity of this strata in societies historically.
Power is a drug and they sought to institutionalize their power through several mechanisms aimed at maintaining that power beyond death itself. The point to be made here is that maintaining power in the western civilization example means power becomes immortal, in that it is continued through:
1. Families and dynasties, through huge institutions such as the military, control over religion through a priest caste, over land with little or no opportunities for advancement. There were exceptions, of course, where individuals did advance into the ruling class, even moving to the top to become kings. But the point here is that kingship remained the institutionalized locus of power whomever was king.
This is perhaps the single greatest source of power for elites aside from military power down the millennia. More on this later.
Next time
Other institutionalization and techniques-taxes, plunder, and tribute and profits for elites and use of debt.
8/13/14
How have elites maintained control in societies through the centuries?
2. But before we leave this topic there are other aspects of elite power which bear examining.
The concentration of an ever increasing population in cities also meant a great demand for resources to keep populations fed and watered, and for ever growing cadres of soliders to control them; and to protect against other cities on the move to gain land and plunder.
Taxation was and is a key component. Aside from taxation for certain services, elites depend upon taxing citizens to pursue foreign wars and to conquer the territories of others. This is the spiral of constant war, to feed elite greed and to feed and keep population growth manageable.
War is not only "profitable" but huge losses make the issue of feeding large numbers of people more manageable. This is the delimma of cities, they are inherently unworkable for the above reasons irrespective of whether the system is communism, capitalism, feudal etc. Dependent populations, under rule are more controllable than self-sufficient populations at large taking care of themselves on the land. This pattern persisted for thousands of years before cities and elites.
Taxation as well has been with us since cities. It was and currently, is useful to elites for debt creation. Many who could not pay their debts could be and were enslaved, or forced into the army, or simpy imprisioned. Private debt, by banks until very recently has served the same purpose. Land and assets can and were simply repossessed in lieu of such taxation and debt.
Plunder, taxation and tribute have been the three most useful tools for population control down the centuries and has worked by and large toward institutionalization of elite power over generations.
If the above fails city elites simply declare marshall law and use military force against their populations and to "protect" the citizens they must be imprisoned. This is common and has, been common down the centuries.
Thus, it is not particularly strong leaders, good ones or bad ones, which account for elite control; it is the institutionalization of power in essentially immortal institutions which accounts for the longevity of elite power.
Finally, note that the military is the bedrock of elite control. It is their trump card in maintaining power.
This next time, and in addition, the use of the famous divide and rule stratagem. Then the Bread and Circus manuver.
8/14/14
Aside from the above, elites have learned an entire catalog of techniques over the centuries in the process of maintaining and extending their control over subject populations.
I will list a few below and then go back into detail on each later. But here is the flavor:
1. Manufactured Chaos via divide and rule, manufactured conflicts, introduction of drugs and disease into populations along with artifical shortages of water and food and fuel as means of control.
2. Coups and subterfuge. Great generals won many battles because they infiltrated populations with spies before any battle occurred and recruited informants as to any weakness in city defenses.
3. Eliminating a potential leadership group in a population. This was often deliberate policy: kill the men, impregnate the women and sacrifice the old and the young.
4. Killing or co-opting the young men in a population, and destroying families with rape, plunder and murder to prevent resistance from any indigenous ruling group was standard practice among the ancients and is still practiced today.
5. Fomenting hatred in subject populations is and was common, especially around race and ethnic groups and then selling arms to both sides in a conflict such that warring groups weaken each other, making a given population easy to take over after the conflict and civil war easier to defeat and/or maniuplate.
6. Forbidding or strickly controlling eduation, knowledge, trade, propaganda, and control over new ideas in communities.
In the American south whites were forbidden to teach a slave to read, under pain of death. This has been common down the centuries.
7. Use of religion as factor of control: religion and the state are aligned; where individuals were required to make sacrificices and provide tribute to local gods of goods, grain etc. These goods and grains were in fact taken by kings and priests to support their lavish lifestyles. The list goes on and on.
8. Creation of industrial slave continguencies. Most slaves worked, outside Rome, for example, in copper mines, in gem stone mines, building roads, and did so on an industrial scale not seen since.
9. Use of race, ethnicity, age, disablity, women, the young, the metally ill as examples of "other" who could be killed and provided examples to the population of what could happen to resistors.
10.Bread and Circuses: Public Sacrifices. Every Roman city had an arena, hundreds of arenas.
Why, because bread and circuses were an integral part of Roman stratgegy to control masses. It was the internet, TV, and movies of the day plus public relations and rank pandering to mob.
11. Use of various genetic and extermination strategies were and are common, where the goal was simply to kill every one the inhabitants of a town, city, ethnic group such that they would never be a threat. The Romans defeated Carthage and salted the soil such that nothing would ever grow there, ever again.
There is more, but the above, as you can see, is plenty for now.
8/22/14
Race as an excuse to feed off the poor in the the US.
Why should this be so. Is it coincidential or deliberate policy? We will explore in the coming days?
Is this a race tax? Is it a deliberate jobs strategy for whites in small towns? Is it part of the school, to warrants to jail treadmill for young blacks?
We take a look.
Take a look at the Ferguson Chronicles for more in this vein.
Theodore R. Johnson is a writer and naval officer. He has served as a military professor at the Naval War College and as a 2011 – 2012 White House Fellow.
Facts, I've come to understand so recently, fall on deaf ears of those who are so governed by emotion ... and fear, so coupled with ignorance and envy, is the most powerful emotion at large in our world. Thanks for your moral courage. Hopefully it will translate into the physical and social determination we need. Well done.
In my readings and thoughts on this subject, the "best" model for society begins with the notion that "I" am at the top (the ruler), and all others descend downward from me in a pyramid. At the bottom (the slaves) are those who are most different from me. With a few variations that model has been the standard ever since we stopped bashing each other's heads, and banded together to bash those "other" bastards' heads.
well done, but, I fear that as long as there 2 humans left alive one will need to feel superior to the other for whatever the reason. I don't know what motivates much human behavior good or bad, but your article is well written
I have never thought of race as a "touchy" subject. But I find that there are those, all around me, that think otherwise. I read Plato's Republic some time ago and marveled at his descriptions of the various forms of government so long ago. However I don't remember his writing about an ordered society of classes of people. I have never believed that and it's gotten me into a lot of trouble by people who did. "Those people must keep their place!"
The founding fathers of the United States, mostly rich landowners and some slaveholders, as well as deeply religious men (no women) wrote that wonderful phrase, "All men are created equal." I believe that be the case. The Bible says that man should have "Dominion over all of the creatures of the earth." However, since Darwin's discovery we are learning that we share a lot of intelligence, behavior, and even emotion with our fellow creatures.
We should talk about race because we are on the verge of Martin Luther King's dream, where race and class will no longer be an issue because everyone will have equal citizenship in the world (not just in this great country, the United States, that some people misname, America, as though we were the only country on the two American continents".
Looking forward to what else you have to say on the subject.
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