The game of power and powerlessness

[undergroundpanther]

"Was there ever any domination that did not appear natural to those who possessed it?”]John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Economist and Philosopher

Alot of Americans submit to authority so easily just like most humans seem to do without thinking. It is our fatal psychological flaw this obedience. This flaw has two parts,an illusion called authority and it's companion lie,submission.Together they for a game. An invisible but crucial social dynamic underlying many relationships..
Even when we are told, it's all a game, that we could opt out of the trap of power and powerlessness at any time, we predictably fall in line with the "authoritarians".Why?

The sickening tendency to obey the boss even if it hurts us is a double edged sword. On one had it is what on one had keeps a society cohesive. Cooperation can help make healthy boundaries on relationships that keep them mutually healthy and beneficiall for all involved. But if thistendency to obey and trust is exploited by certain personalities,they abuse it The obedience in bad relationships will destroy us all.

Unless we learn to recognize an abusive relationships from healthy relationships. Unless we learn to respect our own humanity (and accept our own mixed natures and know ourselves) and begin to cut the ties of toxic shame that bind us to bad beliefs that harm us.. Unless we learn to recognize the personality traits of the types of people that harm us we will be exploitable by them.

In reality ALL authority is ultimately EMPTY. Knowing this we can theoretically disregard any demands authoritarians make upon us. Easier SAID than done. We can intellectualize about it all day,but power is not logical,or easy to analyze when you are interacting with it.It's easier to see from a distance.Power relationships are visceral.Emotionally charged with powerful drives from deep within us operating on a deeper more primitive level than logic alone.A sociopath is the only type of person with the emotional deadness and distance from his own humanity to deviously calculate how to exploit power relationships in the thick of it all. He has a natural advantage because he has NO empathy or ethics,he knows right and wrong but does not care about it,he has defunct emotions.


Alot of people like to pretend an ugly side does not exist inside themselves ,or that they have'tamed' it.. And this deep denial and shame of the underside of self within is a conditioned,shame.It is what keeps the "game of power" going and the roles being passed on for generations in cultures.

Consent to get a person to give up their own freedom and integrity is pretty easy to manipulate if you have noconsciencee or appear to be more 'certain' about the future than they are.Authority is an ACT. a role.A game.A LIE.All social games need at least 2 players.War is a social game the whole world plays.

A non-authoritariann can get a taste of power by proxy. He does this by obeying a leader,an ideology or belief system and identifying what or who he is with it. To exploit this tendancy a Leader will play a role. But he will attempt to remove the inner locus of control, in exchange for his time.A leader will manipulate,condition and seek more control until the subject changes within bit by bit. A 'leader can give you a temporary sense of a taste of this feeling of absolute certainty,of invulnerability of god"power" the"leader" has through symbolic authority, through his compliant' culture' he has crafted inside the subjected people around him, the uniforms,badges,medals,titles and other symbols serve as indications of social rank bestowed for service..Having rankk in a closed system controlled by a 'leader' really means nothing,if you are under another's control it is all empty a show.. So unless others are submitted to your power somehow and do your will..you cannot escape the fact it is all a silly social rank game.

"It is not abject vice, it is vice crowned with splendor,(or power) that seduces men’s souls."

The ENTIRE military command structuree is a big S/M game designed to get citizens to play roles in the games"leaders" play. Soldiers are but pawns and servants in the theatere of war .War is a game of winner takes all various leaders set up and act out through the citizens, to fight other countries leaders by proxy. The leaders are safe but the citizens die.Power and beliefs about power instilled in the population,A willing servant soldier is whom insulates"leaders" from facing social death , social accountability and real death when they use soldiers to plunder,kill and rape thier opponents peoples in a bid for dominance.
The"leaders" get the glory,power ,profits and plunders of war and none of the guts,PSTD and wounds.

The corporation/worker relationship is another toxic social game of the haves/have nots. This game is "I grab more than you can so I am better person than you nyah" . The sense of entitlement haves display is a rank game also, it's a feel good lie that lets the haves feel better than have nots and look down at them as lazy inferior or whatever.. Because of the complexity of these games.. We made up a "chain of command" and rank,badges and beliefs to manage it all.

A chain of command is how an authoritarian extends his domain and exercisess his will through others,by thier obedience..

A "chain of command" is nothing but a circuitous leash of symbol and rank . In good power relationships it can be a function for checking abuse of power. In a corrupt power relationship, it exists to insaulate the top from social accountability for their misuse of others' obedience and trust. It works just like the function of Bureaucracy. It keeps leaders shielded from owning up to their own tendency to abuse and exploit others. An authority who is submitted to a higher authorityy on up the chain is "free" to stop the game. But the leash of symbol and rank are powerful symbols of social death if they are defied, that keeps him playing the game because he believes the authority has power over him and it can ruin him with shame.

In a chain of command" a leader can give you "permission and power" to believe you are powerless. They don't SAY that however.. To "obey" any master ruling from afar by default it is assumed you must obey the person ranking above you. That way the game looks so personal and accountable.. But is ISN'T.

The "chain of command" is an illusion that lets lower ranked people taste power while pretending they have none.It is SWITCH AND BAIT tactics to keep the higher ranking people from being accountable and removed from power by the people they abused. Secrecy serves this function too. It masks the true corruption and incompetency of"leaders" from outsiders not involved in the "inner" circles games Authority in a chain of command appears on the 'inside' as borrowed authority,so you are led to think you are not responsible for following orders, but you ARE ultimately responsible to your own morality first..AND to the"authority" later. Authoritarians do a bait and switch thing here..Authority is DOUBLE the responsibility IF you have an ethical bone in your body and empathy..
It's all a GAME.That authority diffused by a "chain of command" sometimes leads people to do horrible human atrocity and the person who was obedient is victimized by the very chain in the 'leaders' hand that gave him permission and the orders he never questioned..

You are responsible for the things you do with your power regardless of the games you play about why you did it..So when you do something wrong at the behest of orders,there is no excuses for what you have done(kill torture or not) the "game"(war/revolution) is over.You and the chain of command ,all of it are all responsible together,and the leader is most responsible because it is he who set up the rules.. This is because ultimately when people get playing hard in a game and became so immersed in it and it becomes thier life, they lose themself in a role made up by a 'leader' to suit the leaders purposes.

You were an all day sucker.
And that is a horrible shame to carry around inside especially if orders were to torture.No wonder many vets crawl in a bottle and die there.

Your obedience = power for leader. You become an extension of leader . This is the real purposse of power . An'authority'wants underlings to follow the leader because the"authoritarians" themselves can not do. They cannot micromanage the lives of millions, to make sure they follow his rules and play his way.Leadership seek managers who will recruit certain types of personaltiess to their own ranks(moving up the ladder of successs)filling different roles that serve the top 'bosses' desires for more control,domination,sex,certainty,wealth or power with no responsibility to anyone else..at everyone else'ss expense.

In the military the role of a soldier is to be a hired killer for the state . The military trains people to be a gun in a human suit that will shoot whatever you are told to shoot without questioning why. Sure there are geneva conventions and army protocols..yeah and there are courtmarshalss ,public shaming rituals, and dishonorable discharges that will hinder you in society forever. Dishonor in the military is a kind of social deathsentencee. Itremindss me of abuse dynamics in families like when daddy finds out you are gay and in a fit of rage he kicks you out of your family as a 'transgressor' to his rules. He basically hands out a social death to his son for not being the person the father wanted and worked so hard to condition. You had a will of your own,that was not pleasing to the family "authority" so he gives you a social deathsentencee ,you are out and you must visit mom or kin as a fugitive in secrecy and shame.. The army and many other socialauthorityystructuress gives out social deathsentencess too.It's all part of the game.

In a corporation you are an expendable body that produces wealth and gives labor to the Ceo and the executives. You sell all the irreplaceable days of your life doing work for the already wealthycomfortablee,empowered people who have plenty of wealth just so you can get by ,feed your family and eke out a living. When you buy things you need that wealth you just got paid goes right back into the pockets of the already wealthy . It's a scam where the rich can't lose.. it's a great extortion racket and master/slave game..of worldwide proportions held together by BELIEFS,and fear of social death decreed by some authority.What do you think a BAD REFERENCE from a previous employer is all about when you go looking for a new job? It is a social and sometimes even financial deathsentencee.

Childrearing itself is part of the problem. "Nuclear family" 1 father 1 mother doing it all by themselves type arrangements make it all WORSE.
Childhood sets up a person to fear social equality and social death. Childhood is a state ofdis empowermentt by default.The primordial power/powerless situation begins with an infant's unmet needs VS an adult's unmet needs.

The emotional imprint of the situation is often repressed orforgottenn but that intensity is imprinted in the way we Relate and set boundaries on power and each other. This drama is played out in adulthood in different ways all the timeunconsciouslyy for the most part. This is because society is in deep denial together. Society fears powerlessness and it fears power,it fears social death,it fears equality, it fears shame andsociopathsy.If we do not look within,a vacuum demands to be filled.We play games lest the emotions of what this reality is threatens to tear us apart existentially.So we fill the 'void' with a game we have been playing for who knows how long.

Society learns to run away from uncertainty,ambiguity,death,trauma,unpredictabilityuncontrollablityl all the ugly truth of the human condition. And we hide from ourselves,we make believe,we say we know stuff when we are hoping or guessing. We tell ourselves and each other lies. We cause social death of people we don't like,misunderstand or fear because some authority tells us they are bad. We live fearing death,powerlessness, and shame even when we say we don't.

See how easy it is to make"normal healthy adults" become slaves and "masters"..

http://www.prisonexp.org /

"Empathy is antithetical to control, which is why control systems demand psychopathy as the standard mode of function."
Keep hierarchy and contractual obligation prostrate before caring, compassion, and a heart-felt responsibility for all life."

"Each generation begins anew with fresh, eager, trusting faces of babies, ready to love and create a new world. And each generation of parents tortures, abuses, neglects and dominates its children until they become emotionally crippled adults who repeat in nearly exact detail the social violence and domination that existed in previous decades."
-- Lloyd deMause in The Psychogenic Theory of History

. . . To be fully open to the baby's emotional needs is to become reacquainted with oneself as a baby, to re experience the pain of being totally dependent and desperate in love and yet being shut out and feeling unwanted."
-- Robert Karen, Ph.D.


"The end result of man's biological evolution produced a helpless baby whose instinct is to form an intensely personal relationship, challenging the parent to regress and relate, rather than repress and be alone."
-- Lloyd deMause in The Foundations of Psychohistory


"The great leader who is going to save is is not there.
We have to take the power and the responsibility to solve our own problems. We may not have created them, but it is up to us to solve them all."
Justin Dart

Obeying "authority" and serving a "master" is just a big mind game, played out by everyone..This game of make believe will kill us ..unless we realize it is all a game,and every "great man" is only one person like me or you.How much wealth does one person deserve? Does he deserve YOUR wealth? Does he deserve to intrude your boundaries,limit your freedom? Exploit your labor? Deny and twist your consent? Demand your obedience? What in the "exchange" between a master and slave is fair or respectful of all parties? NOTHING.

Disobey power and it's structures will have a temper tantrum than it will collapse. And this creates a vacuumm" of leadership in the minds of people who forgot they lead themselves.The state depends on your consent,as does the corporation. If a corporation is acting like a serial killer by proxy,it is time to DEFEND yourself from the corruption of such an abusive relationship. Because exploitation hurts for the exploited but feels great to the beneficiary it is a rationalization. Social INEQUALITY is NOT a right relationship it means society is sick.. Obedience to a "authoritarian" hurts and so will the rebellion from the corrupt authority..

http://www.abelard.org/power.htm

The biggest difference with rebellions, is a small one,but it is important,it might not help your survival or give you your physical comforts. In a state of rebellion YOU are not obeying someone Else's dictates and you are less likely to blindly accept domination. Because you are empowered with your almighty NO leaders tread the boundariescautiouslyy they are "generous" andspeakk like sweet honey to the ears of thedisenfranchisedd.The leaders put on a big show hoping to be the next'legacy' where they live forever in the hearts and minds of the people supporting the state.. Leaders do this sweet talking sales pitch because they are terrified they are just anothervulnerablye human who will die.

So even if another'leader' seeks to install himself as the new'big man'with big plans.. You do not have to accept him or give him ANYTHING he wants or asks for.Leaders know this,the people don't know it and sadly people desperate to feel protected,begin the power game again. They install a leader based on his looks, that sweet talk,and the promises.It becomes a popularity contest.And sociopaths are the ones to fit the bill with popularity games,they can fake absolute certainty,they can lie without caring,they areconsummatee salesmen ,they have no morality,or empathy to interfere withtheirrexercisee of power, they are glib,socially"outstanding" superficial and desperately power hungry.

With the people's disobedience the authoritarians learn BOUNDARIES exist ontheirr will. And that that other people are REAL. People must act as LIMITS or checks on 'leaders' "freedom" to exercise his power. All power must be limited and led by the governed. But if the governed forget to check the power at the very top and lose that "eternalvigilancee" twords the power lower down they will be slowly manipulated socially from above until they are convinced and believe obedience is freedom .

If the authority keeps violating the CONSENT of the governed, and the governed wake up and stop "playing the game" and won't obey the authority anymore the authoritarian loses his"power" to dominate at that moment. To an authoritarian it is the moment he realizes he is not a god, not special,not entitled or better than others,he realizes that he will DIE and he cannot control it.if not literally it's psychologically there.And then as his mask of sanity and"normal" slips because his fantasy of control is failing him his hidden inner bully comes out for all to see the velvet gloves turn to iron fists of afrustratedd sociopath in a meltdown.And eventually all the P.R. ,media brown nosing,and yes men turn away like rats from a sinking ship and all thecheer leadingg in the world cannot shield him from his true powerless self and people for just a moment see the game for what it is. A very sick social dynamic.An abusive relationship..

If said authoritarian has you convinced he OWNS all the land,houses,food and water and that you OWE him, you will be extorted by your own conditioned beliefs about property ,freedom and power.This is, the essence of an abusive relationship.
And our entire society is built upon this.

http://clogic.eserver.org/2004/reitz.html

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The Nazis, through clever exploitation of their victims' unconscious guilt after poking into the back corners of their minds, were often able to convert courageous resistance fighters into meek collaborators....

...The sudden outbreak of hidden moral flaws and guilt can bring a man to tears and complete breakdown. He regresses to the dependency and submissiveness of the baby.

Think of the dynamics of power and powerlessness going on in Abu Gharib. "authorities as in people with guns and sadist assholes made the Iraqis submit like babies by the use of coercion threat shame and sadistic torture. This abuse of power is the same 'game' being played out all over the world in "nicer" form . Authority and obeying authority is the same sick game as parent/child, boss/worker,bully/outcast, master/slave,torturer/ victim . We are locked in a room with serial killers,sadists and bullies and this "game" is their invention and it is played with a mask of civility and'consent'over it,but every boss, every rich son-of -a bitch, every leader, every authority all of them rely on exploiting this same ugly process ,the game of domination.
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The denial of human freedom..
and equality lifts the authoritarian man beyond his mortal fellows. His temporary power and omnipotence give him the illusion of eternity. In his totalitarianism he denies death and ephemeral existence and borrows power from the future.(the thief of everyone else's tomorrows) He has to invent and formulate a final Truth and protective dogma to justify his battle against mortality and temporariness. From then on, the new fundamental certainty must be hammered into the minds of adepts and slaves.
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Educate yourself about the process of power,which is all about manipulation,sociopaths and mind control .Learn about psychological injury and the dynamics of childhood.

http://www.ninehundred.net/control/mc-ch4.html
http://www.unknownnews.org/060414a-Panther.html
http://www.successunlimited.co.uk/
http://www.psychohistory.com/

[Terran1212]

1. Great post, but really long!

I'll have to read it sooner or later

[BrklynLiberal]

2. H. L. Mencken:

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.

[Raksha]

3. Great post! It got me looking at your journal too. n/t