I have watched with dismay and horror over the last few years especially, and my lifetime in total, as the powers that be, every institution of each type -- religious, government, corporate and media -- have interjected and overwhelmed the discourse of the collective conversation, stifling the development of the discussion and thus the development of our thinking and being. This happens concerning practically every subject -- topics are reduced to a consideration of limited polarities. This reinforces polarity in the human mind, which is trained from birth to look for opposites: Good/Evil, Right/Wrong, Left/Right, Thesis/Antithesis.
The very inquiry into the origins of human thinking and being is posed through the duality of polarity, and yet it is most often considered a singular polarity. Why are we the way we are? Is it the result of nature, or nurture?The debate of nature versus nurture is posed in a single distinct polarization, yet the best question itself supersedes the mindset of the singular polarity. Traditionally, the question is viewed philosophically as a trinity of options -- the thesis (nature), antithesis (nurture) and synthesis (both) of one and the other. And yet, in its natural state, this mode of thinking is more comprehensively a matrix of four: thesis, antithesis, synthesis (both) or neither -- the mindset of infinite alternative potential.
Such comprehensive thinking is uncommon today, as the institutions of the status quo have worked to maintain limited, polarizing collective narratives (particularly through the corporate media) so as to keep control of the way we think, and therefore, behave. But, when we understand how duality and polarity can be used against us, we soon come to see there are many holes in the institutional faà §ade. Sometimes it is their actions that expose them, but quite often it is what they say and how they say it -- or what they don't say -- that provides clarity into their real motivation: domination.
Four Types of Institutional LiesThere are four basic types of institutional/political lies, which directly correlate to the four basic forms of arithmetic. Like all effective lies, each type involves some nugget of truth. The first type of lie is the addition of information: Sometimes the addition of a small bit of (generally false) information can change the story entirely. The second type of lie is the subtraction of information: The removal of small key components can result in entirely different meaning. The third type of lie is the multiplication of information: Exaggerations of situations and related information are included in its presentation, to dilute or emphasize. The fourth type of lie is the division of information: The facts are interlaced with 'disconnects' which separate or underplay the significance of information.
This approach is often used to cover institutional prejudices and bias; to maintain the appearance of objectivity among institutional leaders. The four main categories of human prejudice are racial, religious, institutional/national and cultural heritage/history. Often prejudice is simply based on the pigment of one's skin, or other inherited features, but sometimes it is much more nuanced and complicated than that, particularly where a history of conflict exists. And while human prejudice is typically based on these four distinctions, the specifics of each are near limitless.
Every time we observe police abuse in the United States, it is framed primarily as a racial issue. This causes some emotional duress, but it is often a distraction that belittles the situation, believe it or not. For example, I once observed a police officer jump out of his vehicle and shoot dead a child. And yet no one blamed the policing institution, only the prejudice of one officer. The media institutions unfolded the narrative as 'White officer shot a black child' -- but the headline ought to read 'Officer shoots child.' If we sift through the racial drama we see a bigger more piecing narrative; that, not limited to individual officers, institutions have created a culture that supports attacking individuals with extreme prejudice. Racism is common among authoritarian types, and therefore among individuals who seek to enforce authority, many of these events contain elements of individual prejudice, but the problem is the systematic institutional abuse of individuals. Much like military conditioning, police officers are indoctrinated into a 'police state' mindset, then sent out into our communities -- armed, and with brain-warping wifi devices mounted on their shoulders. That is why we keep hearing the same horrors repeated over and over -- not because of individuals, but the institutions that create and enable them.
Take our water supply, for example, one of the fundamental building blocks of life on Earth. In observing Nestle's government-backed plundering of the drought-stricken Californian water supply, and more recently, the water protection movement in the Dakotas, we see that individuals having to defend the environment (and indeed, their lives) from the systematic destruction at the hands institutions has become the new 'normal'. In the Dakotas, for example, the media portray the people there as 'Native Americans being attacked by private security', or as 'Native Americans acting to protect their water, and the water for millions of other people too.' However, let's firstly remember that the uniting of tribes of our Red brothers is an unprecedented event in the modern era! The Native Tribes coming together is historically significant not only in the number of tribal peoples that united, but also in the reconciliation of old tribal disputed and contentions that took place to make this union happen. These peoples saw beyond the lies -- the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of information -- and understood that the threat to water supplies and sacred lands posed by the Dakota Access pipeline superseded previous tribal divisions, and brought together peoples in unity against the institutionalizaton of nature. That is the story that would have been reported, were it not for the influence of institutional bias.
"It's a major movement in Indian country," said CJ Clifford, a member of the Oglala Lakota, who drove up from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He saw the protests as part of a historical continuum reaching to Little Bighorn. This battle, he said, was being waged peacefully.
"For many, the effort was about reclaiming a stake in ancestral lands that had been whittled down since the 1800s, treaty by broken treaty.
"Lands were constantly getting reduced, shaken up," said Dave Archambault II, the tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux. "I could give you a list of every wrongdoing this government did to our people. All of that is frustration pent up, and it's being recognized. " It's a tipping point for our nations." [source ]
The White, Yellow and Black skinned peoples of the world would do well to take note.
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