Humiliation and Degradation

Friday, August 18, 2006

The words of Sen. George Allen this past week represent a glimpse into the mindset of this and other imperialistic and colonialistic regimes. It represents a habitual pattern of marginalization and disenfranchisement that has historically been used to maintain the superiority that conquerors always have. Kind of like that "Texas swagger" of our current president. It might seem obvious that such behavior can serve only to alienate and radicalize extant populations. This seems to be a lesson of history that perpetually goes unlearned.

Noam Chomsky has remarked that humiliation and degradation help to create a feeling of control as well as a sense of justification. Conquered peoples are "lesser people", not quite as intelligent by a measure as the imperialists, and need to be shepherded. Diminution is a way for the conquerors to still feel good about themselves while they abuse the indigenous peoples and exploit the resources or capitolize on a strategic location. Even though they purport to be benevolent despots, helping to introduce "civilization" to the "natives", to "help them to lift themselves up by their bootstraps", or to "bring democratiztion to the region", depending upon where in history the imperialistic regime locates itself, they are nothing more than self serving aristocrats with a distorted sense of entitlement.

They try to pass it off as paternalistic...we are only trying to "help you". But, in actuality, it is more patriarchal and authoritarian and pejorative. They use techniques such as divide and conquer, manipulation, and out and out lying to achieve their ends which, again, is blatant control over a foreign nation, its people and resources.

It would seem that the pattern of resorting to ridicule, humiliation and degradation would be self defeating with regard to their maintaining control. But, this is part of the hubris of the conquering and alleged patriarchal mindset. It fails to connect the dots...it wants control AND superiority and is, oddly enough, willing to sacrifice the former for the latter because of the need to prop up some kind of defective and collective ego.

The net result, however, is that people reach a breaking point...they refuse to tolerate the nasty epithets, the vitriolic diatribes that accompany the raping, pillaging and looting. It just becomes TOO MUCH and the onset of radicalization begins to materialize.

When a culture starts to manifest its superiority through such devices, one can tell that they have started to lose all touch with reality. They have begun to feel infallible, invulnerable and unassailable. Obviously, we can see this can have dramatic and devestating effects.

So...when elected officials like Sen. Allen start calling opposition party members "macaca", when VP Cheney calls all oppressed peoples terrorists, when RNC chairman Melman continually demeans a party by using such alienating phrases as "cut and run"...we can expect a backlash, particularly if an administration has been found to be manipulative, secretive, untruthful and incompetent.

Time is running out for this administration and its politics of divsion and polarity.

trickster108