The Process of Domination (draft)

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Many people believe themselves to be free.  Many people extoll the virtues of "their" government; how it "benevolently" "cares for" the "less fortunate".

The process of domination generally begins at a young age; imagine a small tribe in an "uncivilized" time, where a "cheif" emerges, who bases his rule upon his strength of might to dominate his fellows.  Initially, some may have disputed this "chief" but if that "chief" was to subdue his rivals, afterwards, would it not be to the advantage of the remainder to submit to this dominating source of violence?  Fear is a powerful motivator of human-action, and I believe it is reasonable to conclude that fear could motivate those remaining to tolerate this "chief" so long as they felt powerless to rebel against his might.  They would be incentivized to raise there children in such a way, as to not invoke the "chief's" ire; and to do so, they would have to raise their children in such a way as to be obsequious to the "authority" of the chief.  Therefore, they would have to raise their children in such a way, as to instill a fear of "authority" in their children and to do that, they would have to adopt this authority, either out of their own fear for their childrens' safety, or out of pain of being dominated themselves, transferred as anger upon their children.

This process of domination has rarely been broken and it has often been strengthened in our "modern" societies.  Now parents are told to let their children, "Cry themselves to sleep" to help "self-soothe", harming the child's ability to trust that their needs will be respected; parents use physical punishment (spanking, or worse) to enforce the parent's will.  Children are sent to schools where there are various "authorities" that must be obeyed or there will be "consequences".

This insidious process of domination becomes pervasive in order to create adults that are obsequious, obedient, dull-witted (because the exercise of violence serves decrease the potential for the exercise of reason, as violence is contrary to what is rational) and above-all fearful/reverent of "authority".

We might compare our "civilized" societies to very-large slave-plantations; the "slaves" may be "permitted" (with "authorized" "documentation") to leave their "plantation" but they are not "permitted" to be left alone, to not be threaten with "punishment" for "disobeying" the "laws" (rules of the rulers).  These "slaves" believe themselves to be "free" because they have from birth been dominated by those in "authority" over them: parents, "teachers", "administrators", "officers", "legislators" etc.

If we are to be free, we must first liberate our minds which are very likely still bearing the scars of domination.  We must first identify, then use logic to analyze, the ideas of that our "masters" have sought to "teach" us.  We must identify what is real and what is abstraction/metaphor, and which of those abstractions/metaphors are useful to our mind's faculties and which abstractions/metaphors have been handed to us to ensure our compliance.  We must undo the processes of domination that we have experienced in our lives, we must come to terms with the pain and fear that had been instilled within our formative experiences.  We must be able to empathize with our own pain and then we will be able to empathize with the pain of others.  Our parents likely dominated us, because they were dominated; our "teachers" dominated us because they were deprived of the ability to reason for themselves and accepted the pedagogical techniques of the "authorities" because they believed themselves to be too incompetent to question those "authorities".

"Domination" is the extension of one's own personal "domain" unto others; I contend, that each person, is a "self-owner", that is, they own themselves, their bodies, the labor-time (action) of their bodies and the products which are the manifestation of that labor-time. If we are to live lives of peace and freedom, we must reject that any other person has the right to extend their own "domain" unto ourselves; our lives must be lived by the principle of voluntary-consent and when ever that voluntary-consent is absent, whenever violence, coercion (threat of violence) or theft is present, we must apply our minds to determine the ethical circumstances involved, to know who is the aggressor, and who is the victim.

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." ~ Albert Camus