Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Chris Floyd — Zero-Sum in Brussels: the Savage Vision Driving a Terror-Ridden World

The atrocities in Brussels — and they are horrific, criminal atrocities — are not occurring in a vacuum. They are not springing from some unfathomable abyss of motiveless malevolence. They are a response, in kind, to the atrocious violence being committed by Western powers on a regular basis in many countries around the world. And just as there is no justification for the acts of carnage in Brussels (and Paris and Turkey and elsewhere), there is likewise no justification for the much larger and more murderous acts of carnage being carried out by the most powerful and prosperous nations on earth, day after day, year after year.
The Western powers know this. For many years, their own intelligence agencies — in study after study — have confirmed that the leading cause of violent “radicalization” among a small number of Muslims is the violent Western intervention in Muslim lands. These interventions are carried out for the purpose of securing the economic and political domination of Western interests over lands rich with energy resources, as well as their strategic surroundings. That they have not even the slightest connection to “liberating” people from religious or political persecution, or making the world “safer,” is glaringly transparent. They are about domination, pure and simple.
Indeed, this point is scarcely disputed, although champions of domination claim it is a good thing. For decades, one has heard the argument from American exceptionalists that “if we don’t do it” — that is, if we don’t dominate the world militarily and economically — “then somebody else will.” The implication, of course, is that such a “somebody else” will be far worse than our own divinely blessed, goodhearted selves.
There is a fiercely primitive worldview underlying this philosophy (which is held almost universally across the American political spectrum, and in those countries who cling to the coattails of American dominance). It says that violent domination is the only reality in human affairs: one must dominate, or be dominated. One must eat or be eaten. One must kill or be killed. There is no alternative. If “we” don’t dominate — by force if necessary, doing “whatever it takes” — then it is a given that some other power will do so. Domination and power are all that exists; the only question is how they are distributed, and who controls that distribution. And there is no price too high to pay in order to gain — or maintain — that control.
You can see how this primitive belief plays out in domestic politics, too. More and more, politics across the Western democracies (and other nations as well) are revolving around the question of who should dominate in a society — or more specifically, who feels their domination over society is being threatened....
Chris Floyd

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a friend said:

"Axe of karma is working relentlessly,
And through this axe, the world is destroying itself with its own hand".

Peter Pan said...

Evolution has conditioned the human ape to believe there is scarcity. Our species is unable to undo this conditioning within the required timescale. Technological innovation has made this timescale remarkably short.

Anonymous said...

If there is a desire for 'more' in a human being, then of course there is 'scarcity'. Nature does everything in abundance - greed, lust, anger, and ego in man, colours of mind, intervene in its enjoyments in both wise man and fool alike. Humans will stuff the whole planet into their mouths, trying to fill that void. These are our 'dear leaders'.

That universal energy and its evolution of prakriti (nature) is impersonal: when a fish is removed from the water it will let it go. It is the fish who loves the water, but does not realise how much.

The whole of the physical universe(s) is resolved in that universal energy: - why not the feeling for 'more' in the transient little atom, man?

Matt Franko said...

"one must dominate, or be dominated. One must eat or be eaten. One must kill or be killed. There is no alternative."

Sounds like textbook Darwin 101.... why is this supposed to be big news?

Peter Pan said...

If there is a desire for 'more' in a human being, then of course there is 'scarcity'.

That is zero sum thinking. Someone wishing to be 'more' creative doesn't necessarily deprive me of having enough to eat.

Anonymous said...

@ Bob

It’s a feeling Bob. We have to consider how the mind works.

Mind will drive this feeling for ‘more’ in a human being into a cul-de-sac such as the one you have suggested (creativity, or anything else that mind comes up with) because it wants to control the feeling. Why not just accept the feeling and see where it leads? Dive in, deeper and deeper, explore. Why place it in a box, cage it, define it, limit it? Then compare one box with another and notice they have a zero sum?

Mind wants to dominate. So, it looks at this feeling for ‘more’ in a human being and begins to throw things at it: - here, have more food, more wealth, and more power. Mind thinks that it is dominant by attaining these, often by stealth - but it is greed, lust, anger and ego in the mind that is dominant, and the human an abject slave. Might wear a fancy suit and boss a whole country; but still a slave. Take one look at the face of a deposed politician to see who rules who. The feeling for 'more' persists. Mind is the thief that breaks into our house and steals our only treasure.

If you are ‘hungry’, then for you there is a ‘scarcity’ of food, even though it may be piled up on the table in front. To satisfy the hunger, you must eat. To satisfy the hunger for ‘more’ in a human being, mind should just relax, take a holiday, and let the heart blossom.