Winter Patriot Community Blog

Previous Part 2 here

Part 3. UNDERSTANDING the VICTIMS (that's you and me)

This is a big one, folks. There's a lot of links and a couple of exercises to do. Should keep you off the streets for a while! Sorry about the length but there is a lot of ground to cover and I don't think I could make it any shorter and do it any sort of justice. Take your time, particularly if this stuff is new to you. It will be unsettling. Be warned, I am trying to turn your view of your world upside-down or perhaps right-side-up! So let's into it-

Our psychopathic leaders and opinion shapers like to blame us for all the damage to the world and for the state that it is in, which is nice given that they are in control and we are not; that the actions that are popularly supported are never included in the managed “two-party” debate that substitutes for choice and voter control. Never-the-less, they are right in one sense. We may be being lied to and we may realise this to varying degrees but we go along with it. Why? This is what I hope to answer, at least in part, in the following essay. Once we understand what the problem is in our society and in ourselves and who is really causing it and why, we are halfway to the solution.

If you have grown up in any “civilised” society, i.e. non-tribal, that I can think of, you will suffer from two related afflictions caused by the preceding generation watering the seed that lies within them and, indeed, within us all. This seed, the desire for power over things we simply are not given power over, principally other people, leads to damaging consequences and psychopathy in some. The two afflictions affecting us all to varying degrees are Learned Obedience and Learned Helplessness. Both lead to a restricted life through a very stunted view of our own autonomy and to a very distorted view of God, if you happen to be spiritually minded.

For my understanding of Learned Obedience, I am greatly indebted to Alice Miller . . (and here) for her writings which have so illuminated my understanding of the human condition as we find it today. While there was much I was aware of before I came to her books, it was Miller's words that lined all the ducks up in a row, so to speak, and gave them a context. A context that showed the dynamic relationship between the desire to love and be loved, the desire to please and to physically survive in the child on the one hand together with the parents' and authorities' desire for control out of their own insecurities, on the other hand, in a way that came alive for me.

I am also greatly indebted to Arthur Silber for not only introducing me to Miller's books through his own writings but also for expounding them and emphasising the need for acceptance and belonging that bedevils us all and makes tools and fools of us so much of the time. I can thoroughly recommend Arthur's Tribalism series and his essays on Alice Miller's work. You might also consider reading these two very valusable essays here and here

(If you read his essays and find them valuable, please consider supporting him and his writing via the Paypal botton on his site!).

This insistence on unthinking, unquestioning obedience by all those in authority over us as children causes untold damage not only at the time but also later throughout our lives and all too often into the next generation. The damage and methods are elegantly explained by Arthur Silber so I wont repeat them here. But suffice it to say that we are blamed and shamed into thinking that we are defective human beings and can only win back acceptance and acceptability and avoid physical and emotional pain through dutifully following orders. This mental conditioning not only sets us up to be manipulated later by authority figures and con artists (which will necessarily have a large proportion of psychopaths amongst them) but will also colour how we view our fellow human beings both within our own tribe (us) and those outside (them). What is ironic is that our psychopathic leaders are always presenting themselves as part of “us” when, in fact, they constitute the entirety of “them”. The people we have been taught to see as “them” are really part of “us”. This is the mother of all “bait and switch” scams. This is the fundamental misperception held by people in our society that leads to wars, exploitation and an untold amount of generalised, non-specific fear that permeates our lives. It's the psychopaths in every society against the rest of us. We accept an enormous amount of restriction in exchange for perceived safety from perceived dangers and enemies all enumerated by our “betters” and “authorities” who are most often psychopathic but always exploitative. We do it reflexively and on demand now.

If you want to know how much you do this (and scare everyone else around you), spend one whole day saying “no” to every “request”, “suggestion” and direction. See if you don't cause some problems for all involved! I'm serious. Try it (that's an order!).
“Just say no” and don't explain it. You don't have to explain yourself. You don't need their permission to say “no”. You're autonomous, remember. (OK, it might not be prudent if you work in an hierarchy to tell your “superior” no. But you might consider asking why. Do a little questioning. Push back. Push the norms.)

If you have a reflex to explain yourself, it will go back to this following orders conditioning and the attendent notion that it is what “good” people do. And being “good” is a moral injunction and morals are to do with God (supposedly). So when you say “no” and refuse to explain it, a little person inside you is going to get scared because you are rebelling against God and everybody knows that God will get you for doing that. Either that or Santa won't bring you anything at Christmas (depending on your particular upbringing). I'm being a little flippant here but most people will find there is validity in what I say if they observe their own feelings when not complying with others. This inbuilt monitor will inhibit our freedom both in what we don't do for ourselves and in what we comply with which often further restricts us.

If anyone thinks it is right to comply with the wishes of those who presume authority over us and that to rebel against them is to rebel against God's order, then they can explain to me why God gave us all freewill. Patriarchal Christians are fond of quoting Romans 13:1-2 saying that God ordains all governments and authorities.

(Romans 13:1-2 NKJV – “Let every soul be subjected to the governing authorities. For there is not authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God and those that resist will bring judgement on themselves”).

Not only does this offend common sense (think various Georges) but it is a very wrong translation of the original Greek scripture. “Governing Authorities” in the NKJV translation and others has been extrapolated from the words “higher powers” (presumably to sound like “powers that be”) and "power" which is one interpretation of the Greek word “exousia” used in the original. But even then it is a partial translation because to be correct it should read “power to choose”. The word “exousia” is elsewhere in the New Testament (and by the same author, Paul) translated as “liberty” and “freedom to choose”. So this should read that the authority is from God to ourselves over ourselves and only over ourselves To assume authority over others is to invite God's judgement on us.

This now makes sense of God giving us freewill for without it we can't be ultimately accountable nor can we freely choose God's Way. Without freewill, there is no way we could be described as being “made in the likeness of God”. We would be little better than robots. Having authority over ourselves rather than by our governments is also in accordance with Jesus saying that Satan is the ruler of this world. Now if this is so, whom is he going to rule through? Well, those with power over others. This is the reverse of what we have been taught by our “Authorities” and you can readily see why. And we know what having power over others does to the human mind. Power corrupts, period. We have a bit more internal consistency now. Have you ever wondered why a king would commission an “Authorized” version of the Bible?

I could go on further with supporting quotes from the New Testament but I don't want to turn this into a theology lecture. I also don't want to restrict this to Christians, so called or otherwise. I mention the New and Old Testaments as much as I do because they are extremely influential over our thinking (even over those whom have never read it!) whether we realise it or not. They have been used (misused) to give authority to the leaders and remove it from the led of this predatory western culture with its long and bloody history of exploitation. This is particularly true today in America and Israel. Our world view is largely a product of our culture so these two books are extremely relevant to our discussion, I believe.

Let us now consider Learned Helplessness. I think it would be fair to say that most people have considered the fact that they would not survive for long outside our society i.e. “in the wild”. We are fond of describing self sufficient tribal people as “primitive” which is code for “stupid”. Yet, they are masters of their own lives in their physical environment. We, in comparison are helpless, totally helpless and we know it. This is what a specialised society does to you. It makes you dependent on the organisers, the go-betweens, the controllers, the psychopaths that control our food distribution and our energy supplies to mention just two areas. (When this same process is foisted on whole nations it is called Globalism.) How are you feeling? Secure? This is relatively real helplessness. What is more troubling ironically, I believe, is the unreal helplessness; the stuff that doesn't exist in the real world; the stuff that has been programmed into our brains to make us feel helpless and hopeless over things that are very much under our control, or could be.

Learned Helplessness is far more insidious in its implantation and its outcome than Learned Obedience which is taught through constant application of “Do this or Else” (to quote Silber). Helplessness comes from conditioning that impresses on you that you are powerless over your circumstances; that no matter what you do or decide it will not work or will not be right, whatever that is. The object is for you to give up your autonomy, your freewill and follow whatever you are told as in Learned Obedience. But you are much more likely to do so willingly because you will believe you need help. So, if the prison door is left open, you will stay because you wont believe you will survive “out there”. You become your own jailer. It doesn't always work, of course. This is what the Israelis are attempting to do to the Palestinians and have been for many years but it is not working as evidenced by the tunnels for smuggling past the prison walls and the skyrockets they are firing over the prison walls. This is what is infuriating the Israelis and this is what I suspect is the meaning of the skyrockets to the Palestinians (at least to those firing them).

But it is very hard to resist the programming when you are young and there is no one to encourage you to resist. How is it done, this programming? It is accomplished often unwittingly by parents who push their children to do things they are clearly not ready to try. The child fails and often, of course. This imprints the failure of their efforts into their mind. Our culture encourages us to “throw them in at the deep end”. The parents, of course, are quite used to doing things they are instructed to do without all the information they need; to do better; to “strive for excellence” whether capable or not; mostly not. They have normalised all this and so see nothing wrong with behaving in like manner to their children. This “swimming in the dark” links fear with learning and accomplishing. We, as children, no longer want to learn or if we do we are constantly battling fear which makes everything that much harder. In Australian Aboriginal culture, the child is free to watch the adult do something for as long as it likes and the child chooses when it will attempt the task for itself, if at all. There is no pressure. The child is respected and granted freedom and autonomy. Certainly in this regard, at least. This culture was sustainable for thousands and thousands of years and was doing fine until interfered with by Western culture which is a relative infant and is looking for all the world as very unsustainable and is far more worthy of the derisive use of the word “primitive”.

Our culture constantly praises competition. But competition creates one temporary winner and a lot of losers. We are also constantly presented with exceptional athletes and artists as models to emulate. Not much chance of that, speaking for myself! The News is full of stories of disasters or atrocities we can do little about particularly as they never identify the causes. At the end of all this, you may feel like you should apologise for taking up space on earth. Many do.

The next level of Learned Helplessness comes when parents, and subsequently any other “authorities”, act erratically and without explanation (because you are just supposed to obey). With inconsistent behaviour comes confusion for the child. How are you supposed to know what the “right” thing to do is when the “right “ thing is always changing? This is a very common cause of children “acting out”. It is very distressing. Eventually, one way to ease the distress is to simply stop trying to work it out whatever it is and just give up and do what you are told and suffer any consequences. The more erratic and inconsistent the parents' or caregivers' behaviour, the worse it is for the child. This is then repeated and reinforced later in life through the behaviour of police, courts, governments and corporations. How often do you hear, “What can I do? It's just the way it is”!

Addictions in the parents amplify inconsistency immeasurably. Children of alcoholics, for instance, suffer a myriad of problems such as Complex PTSD and Dissociation but also this Learned Helplessness. Drug addiction is at epidemic proportions. It is both an effect and a cause of this pervasive helplessness. It's self fuelling.

Children grow up thinking the world is as it is because of their behaviour. They literally see themselves as the “centre of the universe”. So they attempt (or think they should attempt) to do things to stop the bad consequences of their parents' behaviour. When the behaviour and the consequences don't change they blame themselves and feel helpless. Nothing they do is right, nothing works. And because this stress is attended by pain and fear, and lots of it, it gets ingrained very deeply. (Incidentally, that is what torture is all about). So when later in life some cop or other fearful authority figure who can inflict pain starts ranting and raving, many of us are frozen with fear or behave in a way that will placate the bully. I believe this is one explanation for the reception of silence through to nervous laughter that Bush got after his infamous speech about extrajudicial killings around the world - “Lets just say, they're not a problem any more”!
Or the boss starts yelling at you and in front of your co-workers. What are the chances of you shooting back reflexively, “You fucking insolent prick. How dare you insult me in this outrageous manner. Now go to your office and think about what you have done and don't come out until you are ready to apologise”!
The chances would be pretty close to zero of that happening, I guess. Yet, by my reading of Romans ch13, it would be far closer to what God would have us do than being struck dumb and cowering.

I would like to insert into this now an example of what I believe is learned helplessness from our own recent history and the importance of knowing the truth of history not some alternate history. In 2002 there were popular demonstrations around the world against the then impending invasion of Iraq. The invasion went ahead and demonstrations faded away. People had high hopes but were left feeling helpless after thinking they could make an impact against war. The confusion, I believe, was built on the confusion suffered and internalised from their childhood. It all got triggered again. If you suffer from learned helplessness then it is extremely important to find out the truth of your situation to avoid reinforcement through repetition of failure which is inevitable if your plan is not based on reality. The Vietnam war ended not because of citizen demonstrations as is popularly believed but because the United States Army could no longer fight it. There were widespread mutinies taking place within its ranks. Officers were being killed through “fragging” wholesale. The hierarchy had broken down. This has further lesson for us later on.

I have been listing ways that learned helplessness had affected almost all people. The list takes a decidedly dark turn now. For some children and also some adults the programming is done through brutalisation. Many children are sexually assaulted. The figures are one in three girls before the age of eighteen and one in six boys. That's a quarter of our population. For many the abuse is systematic and prolonged. Sexual abuse leaves the victim feeling helpless because they weren't able to stop it and also to blame, which is the other side of this helpless coin, by again not stopping it. They become their own judge, jury and jailers. This state of mind leaves victims open to, and indeed attracts, further abusers. This is not good for the victims and survivors, of course, but it is also not good for the whole society (though good for the controllers) when you have this high number of citizens battling this level of Learned Helpessness. While this abuse is across the whole spectrum of our society, it is more prevalent in environments where there is patriarchal and domineering control such as in religious and state environments.

From here we go deeper again into the world of torture, terror and mind control sponsored throughout the last few hundred years through to the present day by some religions and governments. Though it only directly affects a small minority, it indirectly affects the whole society by adding to the pervasive sense of fear and helplessness. It corrupts the torturers who are then placed in positions of authority over many people. It is where organised paedophilia, torture, the making of psychopaths, learned obedience and helplessness, World Wars (against the “rest of us”), religions, cults, security agencies and the TeeVee come together (whew!). I am not looking forward to writing about this. So this might be a good point to leave off, I think.

Perhaps before I do finish here, though, I will leave you with one more challenge. Earlier in this Part, I suggested that you practise saying “no” to everybody for a day and to be alert to your own and others' reactions of fear. If you are up for it (but not on the same day!), you can also ask yourself whenever a thought occurs about something you think you know to be true, ”Is this something I have just accepted unthinkingly?” And, ”How do I know, in fact, that this is true?” I think you will be surprised at how little you actually KNOW to be true. It might be worthwhile to carry a notebook and jot down the thoughts when they occur to you for a more lenghty consideration later when you might have the time.

This has all been bad news so far, I'm sorry. But there is some good news coming, I promise! But first, Part 4.

Peace, James.

Part 4a here