Control Me!
How we are controlled.
First of all, we control ourselves! To run a civilized society, we need order. We need to move freely with no harm. We need to trust that we can keep our possessions. We need a secure home. We need freedom to express our ideas. There are various definitions and descriptions of ‘civil society’:
- Civil society is advanced when citizens can openly and voluntarily participate in diverse social affiliations, groups, networks, and structures for self-governance and social transformation. [*]
- Civility governs our attitudes towards all other members of society, especially those with whom we have no direct interactions or much in the way of common interests, as well as interactions between individuals and groups, organizations, institutions, and all levels of government and business as well. [*]
- Civil society refers to ethically regulated relationships that enable anonymous social transactions and promote social integration. [*]
- Civility “means the nation is well-formed and organized with a government and laws in place.” [*]
It takes a level of force to operate a civil society. The ultimate freedom is the freedom that others can bash you and steal from you. The same goes for a money system. A level of force is required to ensure persons only use the ‘compulsory’ money unit in all transactions. We cannot operate a money system without an entity that forces all to use money units appropriately.
How do we get people to operate in a civil manner? We need laws, police, and a judiciary. We actually need much more than force, we need an ethical desire to cooperate. We need to live within the spirit of the law. We need common goals and common decency which comes from our young formative years. Religion generally tells people to be good. Law tells them not to be bad. In Australia, we say: “Do the right thing”, but there is no book of the ‘right thing’. We inherently know what is meant by ‘the right thing’. In the West, it comes from the teachings of Jesus, even if we don’t mention the Jesus word.
I don’t drive at speeds in excess of the speed limit because I don’t wish to loose my driving license. I enjoy going fast but refrain from doing so. My brain ignores the potential costs to others through accident as I inappropriately believe that I will not have an accident. The speed limit regulations control me by threat of punishment. I don’t harm people for a different reason. I have been trained that to harm others is wrong. It was part of my moral training when young. This is not universal. What if you were trained as a child that killing another to rob them was acceptable. Here is an old picture from India of Thugees killing to rob.
Thuggees strangling a traveller in India 1829
In our Western civilized society, we think it is bad to steal, but we think it is abhorrent to kill. When your bicycle gets stolen, the police ask you to fill in a form which they then enter into a database and you never hear back from the police. Maybe a friend will tell you that they saw your cycle in the police auctions. However, if they stick a knife in your stomach for the purpose of stealing the same bicycle, a massive investigation is held and it is front page in the newspapers. Of interest, if it was a Western perpetrator, their picture is shown, but if they are non-Western, their picture is not shown! I will broach that later.
Laws are not enough to control people. I have noticed that all the laws of the nation-state are negative — “Don’t do this, or we lock you up.” — “Don’t do that, or we lock you up.” — “Don’t do that, or we lock you up.” We need more than laws. We need a religion or philosophy that trains persons at a young age to be good to each other. This is the essence of Christianity. I have puzzled that the real Christianity is what the mothers teach the young children particularly the little boys. Every country I visit, in the shopping centers, I see little boys following their mothers. They rely on their mothers for security, sustenance, and so much more. The mother is thus extremely influential on the little boy. It seems that things that we are taught when under the age of about seven are extremely difficult to break even if they are wrong. The mother teaches the germ theory with and emphasis: “Dirty. Dirty. Dirty.” if he tries to pick dropped food in the floor. She teaches respect for women with a clearly sexist: “You never hit a girl.” She propagandizes control with: “Don’t answer your mother back.” She encourages reliance on women by being the source of fun and joy in his life. In his school years, on return from school, she exudes excitement at his return and questions him on his day’s progress. She quizzes him on his activities. He becomes reliant on women for food and joy, but also his daily activities have to be justified to his mother. I tell girls: “If you want to find a good husband, find a man who reveres his mother. He will treat you in the same manner. Just don’t mess around or he will discover that there is no sensible reason to respect women.” You can see that porn and rap music have gone a long way to destroying the image of women. Feminism has also altered the illusion of the ‘perfection of women’ as they rant on about ‘rights’. Rights do not exist in nature. Rights only exist when we have a functioning society. The feminist illusion of rights will evaporate when society collapses as occurs in riots, civil unrest, or in the aftermath of war. Women often assist in the collapse of the civil society that gives them rights.
The resignation of King Louis led to the ‘Reign of Terror’ which led to the death of numerous women by guillotine. Many of the women who marched on Versailles, who would now be classed as ‘useful idiots’, lost their heads on the guillotine. They lost their heads because they were no longer useful to those that organised the overthrow of monarchy and they knew too much.
Socialists exploit discontent. Income and wealth inequality frustrate many young people. Although such concerns are real, they hardly justify a move to socialist thinking. Socialism will not fix the issues. Young idealists (or entitled ignoramuses) do not know the stories of previous ventures into socialism such as the recent experiences of Venezuela and many other countries who have taken this deadly path.
Paul Meuller writes: “Once prosperous and cultured, Venezuela has become destitute, crime-ridden and hopeless. Venezuela’s descent into poverty, desperation and organised crime is a cautionary tale about the dangers of socialism. Young socialists should take heed.”
I had a look at the parentage of rap singers. It appears that many were brought up in single-parent families. On a web search on my currently preferred Yandex, I quickly found sentences like:
- Turning this upbringing into a rap verse did not amuse the family’s matriarch, their grandmother, whom Malice claimed distributed cocaine imported from the Bahamas. Cue a rapped apology and regret that respects the family order: “I’m sorry grandmama for mistakes I have made/When I aired family business, how you put me in my place.”
- Vignettes starring his single-parent mother, a grandfather struggling with alcohol, and a father figure who stepped in when CL’s “biological didn’t bother” are couched in such relatable sentiment.
- “Dear Mama” by 2Pac is a thank-you note to his mother, Afeni Shakur, for staying by his side during all of the tumult. Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, had an addiction to crack while struggling as “a poor single mother on welfare,” Pac delivers a account of his upbringing that includes when Afeni was addicted to crack and cops to his own legal indiscretions leaving him “hugging on my momma from a jail cell.”
Lyrics:
- Single parent trying to raise their children
But they would much rather not alone
Reaches out to find that special someone
To make their house a home - A yo, be a father
If not, why bother, son?
A boy can make ’em,
but a man can raise one.
(Ed OG rallies against fathers who think gifting material possessions excuses being largely absent from their kid’s life. The pro-fatherhood stance is resolute — and Ed OG is quick to salute single mothers — but he ultimately hopes to spark a change of heart from those AWOL dads).
It’s never too late to correct your mistakes
So get yourself together for your child’s sake.
Sara Ipatenco lists the characteristics of civilized society as [*]:
- Authority
- Food, Water and Agriculture
- Safety and Protection
- Education
- Trade and Availability of Goods
- Defined Societal Roles
- Basic Freedoms [*]
To achieve this list, the society must be controlled. The balance of that control is significant to prevent excessive control. The control systems contain at least two components:
- Force and threats of punishment.
- Encouragement to be good or at least follow the norms of society.
Simply Psychology words it as [*]:
Social control is the process whereby society seeks to ensure conformity to the dominant values and norms in that society. This process can be either informal, as in the exercise of control through customs, norms, and expectations, or formal, as in the exercise of control through laws or other official regulations.
The methods employed to establish social control include a mixture of negative rules, where transgressors are punished, and a positive culture which seeks to encourage voluntary compliance.
The agents of social control are the persons or entities that work to influence the behavior of the citizens in civilized society. Here are list those that I can think of:
- Family: There is control exerted on people by their parents, siblings, spouses, and relatives. I shall add friends and acquaintances to this list. Children learn a set of moral rules from and a respect for authority from their parents supported by the extended society. Such is the saying: “It takes a village to raise a child.” This proverb means that an entire community of people must interact positively with children for those children to grow into good members of civil society.
- Education.
- Community: Ridicule, ostracization, and shame are methods of social control in communities. The prospect of rejection from others is a strong incentive to follow societal norms. The desire for respect and status will drive individuals to uphold the norms of society. (When I put a five euro note into the donation box at Cologne Cathedral, I was tempted by my subconscious to ensure I had been seen by volunteer staff. My neocortex told me not to be ridiculous, so I put it in the slot un-noticed! But, then, I wrote it here!)
- Criminal Justice System: Punishments given to those that are convicted assists to:
- deter others from committing crimes.
- remove the wrongdoers from society.
- impedes the recruitment of others into crime.
However, high incarceration rates tend not to reduce the rate of crime:
‘The Prison Paradox’ summarizes research about the relationship between incarceration rates and crime rates, finding that since 2000, the increased use of jails and prisons accounted for nearly zero percent of the overall reduction in crime.
And:
Incarceration is not only “an expensive way to achieve less public safety,” but it may actually increase crime by breaking down the social and family bonds that guide individuals away from crime, removing adults who would otherwise nurture children, depriving communities of income, reducing future income potential, and engendering a deep resentment toward the legal system.
Unfortunately, the state assumes that the state is the highest authority and it alone has the ability to steer the society. This is rarely the case. The state operates using negative rules. There are signs everywhere: “Don’t do this”, “Don’t do that.” All nation-state laws are negative. No nation-state law says to ‘do the right thing.” This is similar to the laws from Moses. If you read the speeches of Moses by reading random pages from Deuteronomy, you will find he gave negative rules: “If they do this, hang them from a tree until dead.” and “If they do that, bury them up to the neck and throw rocks at them.” Neither does he talk of a fair trial. One suspects that people were considered ‘guilty by accusation’. Christianity has a requirement to use the compassions which I characterize by an expectation of ‘Common Decency’ both given and received. Herein lies the problem with multiculturalism. Common Decency is not a characteristic of many or most religions. This leads to Ghaddafi’s statement: “It is better to only have one religion in a nation.”
In The Social Basis of the Third International Theory, Gaddafi argued that when a nation’s social factors are compatible with a single, shared religion, the community is stronger and more stable.
When I compare religions with Muslims, they often state: “You Christians cannot keep your families together.” I tell them about Al-Ghazali about one thousand years ago. He effectively said that, if Allah says it goes sideways when it falls, it goes sideways, not down. Science is stupid. Stop studying science, treat the Quran as a rule-book, and pray five times a day. Islam ceased to progress. The ‘Christians’ were controlled by the Catholic Church at the time that taught in Latin which few people understood. All the smelly stuff and pointy outfits originated from the Pagan origins of the Catholic Church before it was decreed a Christian Church. Europeans were mere ignorant peasants at that time. The European peasants became ‘thinking’ people as the rigid Catholic approach was relaxed particularly after Martin Luther stated that the gospels should be written in the local languages. The New Testament is like a book of riddles and one has to think to understand the content. Europeans started to be thinking people. Along with a slowly increasing money supply and other factors, Europe started to be massively progressive. The whole world likes to copy the West with its tarmac, toilets, telephones, televisions, electricity, railways, cars, democracy, and the rule of law.
The Western problem with marriage can be tied to state control of marriage. Under Church control, marriages tended to stay together. State law systems consistently fail to prevent crime. Elites through their control of corporations, corporate lobby groups, and foreign controlled lobby groups tend to corrupt our democracy.
Irrespective — we are controlled. Part is external. Part is internal. The internal part is partly indoctrination by the older females called mothers when boys are very young, and part is concern about incarceration. Even the external component of societal norms and the justice system could be considered internal as we don’t want to ‘offend’ or disappoint family nor loose status, nor run foul of the police and judiciary.