Today's Considerations
A few examples were shared yesterday of a variety of hierarchies, some dating back several thousand years and some still functioning nowadays.
Add to those the rankings established by national, state, and local governments with "power" and "control" supposedly concentrated at the very top and then trickling down to one degree or another to others with less "authority" and "influence." For the most part, "power" and "control" and "authority" and
"influence" are in the hands of the few, not in the hands of the masses.
The same applies with "wealth": most economic "power" and "control" and "authority" and
"influence" are in the hands of the few, not available at all to the masses in general.
On local levels, police forces are organized into a rigid, hierarchical structure, as are their "brothers" and "sisters" in the military.
[Why that terminology? In the U.S., it is not uncommon for 75-80% of a police force to be made up of men and women who have previously served in the armed forces . . . that is, in one branch or another of the most rigid hierarchies of all. To understand that persons who had been formerly trained to "seek out and destroy" are now being hired (supposedly) to "protect and serve" is to understand why many have transitioned so poorly into their "new role." Add in the fact that the U.S. Government is now distributing to local police forces the same military gear which many of those police wore earlier while in the military and the same hardware which they used in the military and it also becomes easy to understand the militaristic, "we-are-at-war-mindset" being evidenced as they take to the streets to do battle with the "bad guys," just like before. One retired policemen said that, typically, only six months of training are offered at police academies and that only a few hours of that training deals with "techniques for defusing situations in non-lethal ways."]
Also on local levels, it can be seen that firefighters; that school employees; that those running churches and temples and mosques and synagogues; and even those in Twelve Step Groups are all arranged into rigid hierarchies. [In the latter, certainly the one with 30 years of "sobriety" enjoys a higher status than the one with 20 years of "sobriety," and the one with 3 years of "sobriety"enjoys a higher status than the one with 1 year of "sobriety."]
And what is the effect of accepting a "high" or "mid-level" ranking in any given hierarchy? And what is the effect of being locked into a "low-level" rank in any given hierarchy? (A full discussion is available in the free eBook dealing with "Maharaj and Sapolsky," offered without charge on this site.)
Before moving to that, though, please review the roots of hierarchy establishment and maintenance and their link with the Ultimate Sickness. Consider:
Of all of the beliefs that are passed down to children, none generate more chaos and angst and disharmony than beliefs about "different-from-ment" and "better-than-ment" and the legitimacy of one's place on any of the many hierarchies to which children are introduced, all based in duality and all at the
root of the problems now plaguing the relative existence of persons all around
the globe (including the practice of bullying which starts early on among children as they arrange themselves into rigid social hierarchies).
Couples establish hierarchies. Families establish hierarchies. Towns establish
hierarchies. States establish hierarchies. Nations establish hierarchies.
Students establish hierarchies. Teachers establish hierarchies.
To review: “Recovery” and
“self-help groups” and “spiritual” groups establish hierarchies. Religions
establish hierarchies. Fire departments and police departments establish
hierarchies. Navies and armies and marines and air forces establish
hierarchies. Even troops of baboons establish hierarchies.
Among humans, the roots are firm, established in the dualistic thinking so readily accepted by the masses, and the effects are not only formidable but are also often overwhelming and crushing and violent, often involving bloodshed and bloodletting.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE: You may access all of the posts in this series by clicking on the links below]
