Xenophobia & Prejudice Are Human

Europe's Huddled Masses

By Roger Cohen, Feb. 4 2016 (LINK to article)

"Xenophobic rightist parties thrive at the margins from Sweden to Greece."

Xenophobia is just one side of single coin, on the other side of which is "familophilia", love of the familiar, so why is it demonised as some form of evil?

It's the same with "prejudice". Human beings are inherently prejudiced about everyone and everything, especially race, given our inherent and intense tribal nature, and yet it is demonised as some terrible evil. Why?

It seems to me that both xenophobia and racial prejudice have taken the place of "original sin" (disobedience of divine, i.e. priestly/state authority and thus also a perfectly healthy aspect of human nature) as part of the age-old strategy of “divide and rule”, whereby society is divided into a morally superior, supposedly neither xenophobic nor prejudiced, i.e. "color-blind", elite and the morally inferior, naturally less colour-blind, masses, who must submit to the authority of and domination by their "moral superiors".

This new form of original sin is embedded in the ideology of DIVERSITY and post-racial multiculturalism, which now serves the state and statists as an instrument of socio-political intimidation, rewards, punishments, manipulation and control, just as medieval church ideology once did.

Of course, our xenophobia and prejudices must be controlled in a civilised fashion, just as our sexuality or disobedience of authority must be - but not demonised.

It is surely no coincidence that we are brought up to trivialise, ridicule or demonise our inherent tribal nature, rather than give it the serious attention and study it deserves.

 I elaborate further in this BLOG.

Religion, Moral Authority & Power

How Politics Has Poisoned Islam

By Mustafa Akyol Feb. 3, 2016 (LINK to article)

Until modern times, religion, i.e. its priesthood, served the state as a source of knowledgeable and moral authority. William the Bastard of Normandy made sure he had the Pope's approval, before embarking on his invasion and subjugation of the English in 1066. In return, he massively supported the Church, so it was a good deal for both parties, but not so much for the English, who suffered under the Norman yoke for centuries, one might even argue, to this day.

The state has to legitimise itself and it was to the moral authority of religion that it turned. This is still the case, it seems, in the Muslim world, although brute force clearly also continues to play a big role.

In the West, brute force and the authority of priests are no longer considered acceptable. The state looks instead to a secular priesthood of academics, who base their authority not on sacred scripture, as in the past, but on their claim to possess objective facts, reason and rationality. Only, their facts, reason and rationality are not nearly as sound or objective as they would have us - and themselves, no doubt - believe they are.

This is because, largely in overreaction to Nazism, a previous generation of academics made a taboo of viewing their own species, society and civilisation from a human-evolutionary perspective, which is the only way to develop a realistic understanding of these things and of our own situation. See BLOG in which I elaborate.

The Demonisation & Exploitation of Human Tribalism

What O.J. Simpson Taught Me About Being Black

By By John McWhorter Feb. 3, 2016 (LINK to article)

" . . what I saw was [black] people ignoring the facts in favor of a kind of tribalism."

Tribalism is also responsible for racial prejudice and, to some extent, I'm sure, for white police brutality towards blacks, but it is no good simply demonising it; it is far to much and deep a part of human nature.

We are an inherently and intensely tribal animal, whose original tribal environment (in which human nature evolved long before the first states and civilisations emerged from it) was done away with by the state, which now deceitfully poses as our tribe or nation itself (intra and inter-tribal environment), while at the same time facilitating society's SELF-exploitation, to the personal advantage of its ruling elites and favoured (especially wealthy and academic/formerly priestly) clients, at the expense of society at large.

The "nation state" demonises, suppresses, manipulates and exploits its citizens' tribal nature, patronising blacks and demonising "white racism", i.e. tribalism, as part of its age-old strategy of “divide and rule”, whereby society is divided into a morally superior, now supposedly "colour-blind", elite and the morally inferior, naturally (human nature being what it is) less colour-blind, masses, who must submit to the authority of and domination by their "moral superiors".

We need to understand our tribal nature and work with it, instead of allowing the state and capital to manipulate and exploit it for their own power-political and commercial purposes. See BLOG in which elaborate on human tribal nature and what is preventing academics from giving it the serious attention and study it deserves.

A Novel Approach to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Don’t Shoot the Messenger, Israel

By Ban Ki-Moon Jan. 31, 2016 (LINK to article)

I would like to suggest a novel approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, which entails questioning long-held assumptions about the very nature of the state itself. In this instance the state of Israel and the proposed Palestinian state, but principally all states.

The principal assumption we make about the state is that, as the modern counterpart of our original tribe or nation (thus the notion of the "nation state" and appeals to citizens' tribal loyalty), its purpose is to serve society at large.

This assumption, however, is wrong, but suits the state's ruling elites and favoured (especially wealthy and academic) clients. The primary purpose of the state, even the democratic state, is what it has always been, ever since the very first states emerged form a tribal society long ago, which is to facilitate that society's SELF-exploitation, to the personal advantage of these ruling elites and favoured clients, at the expense and ultimate self-destruction of society at large. This is why all past states and civilisations have declined and disappeared, as will ours, unless we quickly recognise the cause and correct it.

This insight is the social and political science equivalent of the Copernican world view, which replaced the Ptolemaic view. It may not seem that important at first, but in fact changes everything. It is certainly not a quick fix, but will set a revolution in motion, putting us on the road to long-term solutions not just to existential political problems in the Middle East, but around the world.

Recognising the true nature of the state demands a human-evolutionary perspective: see BLOG.

America has Lost its Way

Trump, Sanders and the Revolt Against Decadence

By Ross Douthat Jan. 30, 2016 (LINK to article)

The truth is that America, along with the rest of western civilisation, has lost its way, which, interestingly, the NYT itself warns of in an editorial, The Price of Fear, following the Paris attacks, last November:

“In the reaction and overreaction to terrorism [evil] comes the risk that society will lose its way.”

This is an extremely dangerous and frightening situation to be in, and at the same time, very difficult to face up to. Most will simply dismiss me as a "doom-monger".

And it is not as if western civilisation were moving in the right direction before this overreaction to evil occurred. It wasn't. But it was in a much better position to recognise and develop an understanding of where it was going wrong.

This overreaction was to the evil of Nazism and everything (apart from German motorways) it was associated with.

The Nazis hijacked and abused, for their own evil purposes, some extremely important ideas, which, thanks largely to the misguided efforts of "anti-faschists", who made a moral imperative of this overreaction to Nazism, remain to this day, effectively, under Nazi occupation.

This included the half-baked ideas of social Darwinism, which resulted in a previous generation of academics making a taboo of applying Darwin's ideas to ourselves, our civilisation and situation altogether, which is what we urgently need to do, if we are to find the way to our future, rather than see our civilisation fail: The West's Overreaction to Nazism.

Racial Self-Contempt of the Liberal Left

How Stupid Is Iowa?

By Timothy Egan, Jan 29, 2016 (LINK to article)

To my pleasant surprise, my comment was approve and published by the NYT (LINK). This is the longer, revised version I was intending to post here in its stead:

"Trump can call for a police state pogrom against 11 million people and be rewarded, because a majority of Republican caucusgoers are white, native-born and believe that electing a demagogue will make American white again."

The contempt which "progressives" like Timothy Egan show for their own race is breath-taking.

They can’t express such contempt for other races, of course, but only for their own race, which, ironically and paradoxically, reinforces their sense of moral superiority as “anti-racists".

They don't see it themselves, because they live in an ideological bubble, their views reinforced my fellow "progressives", who see any co-ethnics failing to share their sense of racial self-denial and  self-contempt as "white supremacists".

How is one to understand such blindness and madness on the part of people convinced that THEY are the enlightened ones?  It is their own sense of being enlightened and morally superior, of course, which blinds them. Most of them mean well, which is why I refuse to see them as enemies. They are just misguided. Which is how they see people like ME, of course: misguided, "hateful" and full of "white supremacy".

I guess we are ALL deluded and misguided to some extent. But I'm not hateful or full of white supremacy. For better and for worse, I identify with my own race, which seems to me a natural and healthy thing to do. Denying and despising one's own race, as "progressives" are ideologically bound to do, strikes me as unnatural, unhealthy and pretty perverse.

I want to enlighten them, but they are convinced that I am the one in need of enlightenment, i.e. who should embrace THEIR ideology of racial self-denial and self-contempt. But I'm damned if I will. I have too much racial self-respect.

I have also discovered, I believe, the cause of their unnatural and unhealthy attitude of racial self-denial and self-contempt, which began as an understandable OVERREACTION (something the NYT itself warns of an editorial following the Paris attacks) to Nazism and the Holocaust, and which I elaborate on HERE.

Tribalism Behind Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Israel's Image Issue

By Roger Cohen, Jan. 28 2016 (LINK to article)

The root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is human tribalism, as it is of conflicts and tensions all over the world.

This may SOUND like an unhelpful platitude and statement of the obvious, but it's not.

The reality is that we are dismissive of our inherent and intense tribal nature, trivialising, ridiculing or demonising it, rather than giving it the serious attention and study that it deserves.

Instead of grappling with the problems our tribalism creates, we insult each other with accusations of tribalism, so it is no wonder the problems are so intractable. We are not facing up to and dealing with their underlying cause.

And it is not politicians who are primarily responsible for this state of affairs, but ACADEMICS, because they are the ones we all - including politicians - look to as authorities on just about everything. And it is they who have cultivated this attitude of trivialising, ridiculing and demonising our tribal nature, not least, because of their own professional claim to be above it, when, of course, they are not. They pretend to be, and our politicians have to follow their example, and are thus unable to deal with the problems our inherent tribalism causes.

It is the subjectivity of our tribalism that makes it so difficult to deal with, but we must learn to do so, and the only way is by approaching it from a human-evolutionary perspective: http://unapprovedcomments.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-wests-overreaction-to-nazism.html