Sunday, July 21, 2013

The Alpha Male

ok, this one is about resolving mankind's biggest problem: the Alpha Male.

Hormones will be the end of us unless we manage them better. Every war has been for the betterment of the people. Most have only temporarily reduced the competition for supreme ruler (the Alpha Male) by thinning the gene pool of the more gullible. The problem with this evolutionary trend is that it selects for the less gullible, since the more gullible are eliminated through conflict. The survivors are those at the ends of the bell curve that have evolved resistance to manipulation.

Therefore, new governing channels must be developed. One channel takes kids and indoctrinates them before they can absorb their parents distrust of manipulating governance (for example the American Indian schools, Chinese state schools, and Islamic Madrasas). Another channel (and sometimes the same) stipulates that obeisance to the government is equal to obeisance to God, and faith is more valid than reason. That one is called "The Lord's Way", don't question The Lord (he won't answer you anyway unless you accept tenuous associations, like figures on toast).

So Alpha climbs from childhood to a position of power and his competitors kneel. As he comes into contact with more ruthless competition, he raises the stakes to become equally ruthless. They torture, he tortures. They get nukes, he gets nukes. They get the Dead Hand Phage, he gets … wait.. um, well, ok we're all doomed anyway. All it takes is one Alpha Male who's a bit more psychopathic than the rest, to prove he's tops forever. Rumor has it they whacked Kennedy because some other Alpha wannabe's thought his response to the Cuban Missile Crisis was more psychopathic than it should have been. A good excuse to get rid of competition, but maybe they were sane, who knows.

The administration of Heavens Mandate is un-questioned because it's God, what are you gonna do. Traditionally explained because humankind are His dream creation and oh definitely not the reverse.

I propose that God the Creator is pretty much defined that way because he's an icon of intellectual territory. So when some representative of our civilization's finest meets those unwashed people from wherever they come from (hillbillies, hippies, gentiles, heathens, brogans, etc), there's no way they can put a prior claim on the territory by claiming gods grace, because they don't know god, because he's defined as undefinable. One is either already chosen or not as a private arrangement among believers so outsiders need not apply. God-the-undefinable is defined as invisible, immutable, eternal, immortal, un-touchable, all knowing, irreducible, the first and ultimate source of creation, bla-bla-bla, but especially better than what YOU got.

Every cultural has a bunch of these icons, and acts like they're private property. When inheritance is important, they're related through blood (Arron, Moses, David and Fatima). The line of succession is proof of grace because it shows good genes, thus gods favor, thus anything they want or do is valid. When rational and wisdom are the best argument, the icons demonstrate those qualities (Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Odin, Ra).

Historian Guy Halsall says "The only common factor in defining ethnicity is belief: in the reality of your group and the difference to others" (Halsall, Guy (2008), Barbarian migrations and the Roman West, 376–568, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-43491-2).

The basic idea is to legitimize the "Mandate of Heaven" so when I find a $20 bill, I don't have to give it back because it's a sign of Gods favor.

Actually though, it's a matter of personal investment in the outcome. When confusion and strife drag on for years, everyone has time to develop blinders that keep them from seeing common humanity. That condition is a result of cognitive dissonance, where ideals are compromised and tired souls are bought and sold. In a whirlpool of conflicting meanings: "Gods Favor" means that $20 is mine.