Law of the Jungle
Long long ago in a galaxy far far away . . .
Well not that far actually and not that long ago, people formed themselves into groups or tribes. Other sentient beings, animals, did so as well, and still do.
Why did we do that?
We did it because finding food and shelter and protecting ourselves was more effective as a group than if everyone acted as individuals.
Different people took on different roles – the things they wee most suited to.
Some were ‘natural’ leaders and organisers, others (mostly men) were natural fighters and hunters, some (mostly women) were natural managers, nurturers and healers.
This worked well for a very long time, and in remote places now it continues.
We did what we were meant to do, we survived, we created art, we invented things, we found new ways and processes for doing things, better ways of communicating and so on.
But then it all went wrong.
We became ‘civilised’.
What I mean by this is that as populations grew people began to coalesce into larger and larger groups, and as the groups grew they became unable to function, as the tribes had done, according to the ‘natural’ laws – or the laws of nature.
Instead of autonomous tribes we created ‘societies’ and ‘cultures’ and developed the ideas of ‘state’, ‘nation’ and ‘government’.
And instead of valuing each other’s’ contributions to the tribe equally, because all roles taken on were equally vital to the survival of the tribe, we invented the idea of ‘class’.
Some roles were less valuable than others, some people were more ‘important’ than others.
Having a ‘more important’ role was converted into being ‘better’ than those who had what were seen to be less important more ‘menial’ roles.
(This by the way was where the subjugation of women came in)
You see, as the populations of each state or nation grew, there were more clashes between them, more fighting over the limited natural resources, primarily land, that were available in any particular area.
Men did the fighting – men were more important.
And some men (and occasionally women) were more important than others – we invented the idea of an ‘aristocracy’ which, translated from the Greek, means ‘the best’ (aristos) ‘rule’ (kratos).
And so it came to pass, that in most places in the world a ‘ruling class’ emerged who took charge of each state or nation usually using a hereditary succession process.
No-one else got a look in – except very rarely when there was a ‘power behind the throne’.
The Greeks in Athens had a slightly different way of doing things. This was called ‘democracy’ – translated as ‘the people rule’. However, the definition of ‘people’ (demos) really meant ‘native adult male residents’ of wherever this system was applied.
One man was selected as the leader of the state by the other ‘people’ (remember the definition).
Sometimes this didn’t work because the ‘elected’ leader would get the idea of appointing a successor, ending up with what might be termed a hereditary democracy.
In other cases, most other democracies in fact, a ‘ruling class’ of politicians would emerge from whom the ‘leader’ was regularly chosen.
Now instead of the law of nature it’s the law of the jungle.
Members of the ‘ruling class’, whether they be elected or appointed, and the people who ‘follow’ them fight among themselves for power and the authority to ‘rule’ as they see fit.
But things are changing.
There’s a shift in the ‘balance of power’ going on and the power of individuals or the ‘ruling class’ to rule is being degraded.
You see, power is achieved as a result of many things, but one of the most important is ‘information power’.
If you have control of information and communication, then you have control over pretty much everything else.
That’s why the media channels, TV and radio and the press, are the top strategic targets in the event of an invasion or coup d’état.
But that’s not so easy to do any more.
Information power is shifting to individuals, quickly in some parts of the world and slowly but surely in others.
And it’s becoming easier and easier for individuals, acting on their own or sponsored by an organisation to ‘mess’ with the information, to make people believe something is true which is not, or vice versa.
So, there’s now a fading trust in ‘information’ and especially ‘news’ in general.
And when people don’t believe the information they’re getting, don’t know if it is true or false, its power fades.
People are beginning to realise that the decisions they were asked to make in terms of an election or popular vote on some topic of importance, were based on ‘information’ that had no grounding in truth (whatever that is – ask Shakespeare!)
And more and more people are starting to lose faith in the current concepts of government and democracy and turning to their own resources to achieve what they want from life.
What does all this mean for you and me?
We have the power to govern our own lives.
Switch off the ‘news’, ignore the politicians and the media.
Create your own information.
Inform people about you, about who you really are and how you feel about life the universe and everything.
Not just a re-hash of someone else’s information or belief, but how you see life, history and the world as it is today.
Your take on it.
Now it is time to act as individuals!
Tell ‘them’ out there – who you are.
Who are YOU?
(BTW – this wasn’t at all what I intended to write today – it just flowed out)