By Naresh Jotwani for the Saker Blog
It is extremely difficult to relate general statements about human nature to very specific present-day situations. If one is close to the scene, he may miss the forest for the trees; from a distance, he may miss both.
Fortunately, Saker does not object to forays into treacherous terrain!
In that spirit, we start with a list of ten fairly simple words, referring to basic human qualities: Generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, perseverance, forbearance, truthfulness, determination, love, equanimity.
Now a simple proposition:
The human qualities listed above contribute to the goodness of community life, in any human society. Therefore we shall dub these qualities “virtues”.
Quite possibly the African word “ubuntu” refers to similar qualities. Almost certainly, every human language around the world has similar words – simply because every human community has experienced and vouchsafed the value of these qualities over thousands of years. The word saint, for example, refers to a person generously endowed with these qualities.
But, as we know, there is a “fly in the ointment”.
Even in idyllic, remote communities, far from “evils of the modern world”, the situation is never perfect. Greed, lust and over-sized egos – qualities definitely NOT present in the list above! – do erupt frequently, acting as destroyers or disruptors of the goodness of community life.
In other words, even in the happiest of “picture postcard” communities, “the devil” will make his appearance. Unchecked greed and lust will disturb the peace. The community will have to deal with the disturbance. That is simply the nature of the species we call Homo Sapiens.
Some form of community action will attempt to restore peace – sometimes aided, and sometimes obstructed, by local religion, customs, politics, money … et cetera. Besides, time is often also a fairly good healer.
***
Now another basic proposition whose truth is historically validated:
The commonest and most deep-seated drive in a human being is the well-being of one’s family and close kin.
Indeed, this deep-seated drive has made possible mankind’s long journey from it’s original habitat in Africa, more than a hundred thousand years ago, to the remotest places around the world. In those early days, a lone “individual” stood absolutely no chance in the hostile surroundings.
Today, from comfortable homes, offices and libraries, so-called “scholars” have taken to develop “theories” which they claim will take mankind to higher levels of “development and progress”. However, the following simple and most sensible of dictums is arrogantly, brazenly ignored by “theorists”:
Any mental construct known as a “theory” or “ideology” should be consistent with our non-negotiable, existential reality – and in particular the reality of the common, most deep-seated human drive mentioned above.
A theory which ignores or seeks to suppress this human drive must fail, simply because this drive does not ever concede defeat. It is in the DNA. Any sensible human society should respect, allow and guide this human drive – and, indeed, benefit from it. This common drive, a central reality of human life, quite plausibly explains Adam Smith’s famous phrase “the invisible hand”.
No theory or ideology – from “the right”, from “the left”, or from behind “prestigious ivy-covered walls” – can ever supersede this reality.
The messages of true saints, on the other hand, are completely in harmony with this reality. Saints understood human nature. Arrogant, hyper-active theorists and ideologues do not.
Indeed, this reality defines the only “freedom” that the vast majority of human beings cherish around the world. Take care of your loved ones all your life. Be ready to give up your life for the welfare of those who are your own.
Today the word “freedom” is being misused right and left. But, to the author, that debased use of the word is in fact a mega-scam in progress. The following question being posed to the reader may clarify the point:
Question: Of the following two, who is the greater hero?
(1) Person A who keeps his head low and provides for his family, or
(2) Person B who ridicules or derides A, and incites others to agitate for “society’s freedoms”?
A crucial point seems to be this: A person’s commitment to a set of values must be judged by what the person is refusing in exchange for them – because any such exchange is a betrayal of the professed values. It follows logically that even life may have to be laid down in defence of the values.
Theorists and ideologues, on the other hand, are happy having others lay down their lives in the gruesome social and political experiments which their theories and ideologies engender. Over-smart “modern persons” – who have no values or virtues – conveniently conflate theories, ideologies and values.
Note: A different meaning associated with the word “freedom” is much more philosophical or spiritual in nature (please see here). The way to reconcile the two meanings is to say, perfectly logically, that the loss of freedom associated with taking care of one’s loved ones is voluntary. It is not a result of any external coercion.
***
Now please imagine two tribes living self-sufficiently a few kilometres from each other – completely unaware of what lies beyond their common but fiercely contested lands. Let us assume that their combined lands are surrounded by un-passable geographical barriers on all sides.
Even if the tribes have learned to live in peace, and largely avoid one another, occasional skirmishes are inevitable – effects of eruptions of greed, lust and/or ego. In such an eventuality, some form of community action on both sides will attempt to restore stability. Flare-up of a skirmish into a major tribal war is unlikely in view of the prospect of serious losses on both sides in a war.
Note the crucial point that, when a skirmish does break out, there are only the two tribes present there to sort things out. There is no over-smart “third” party present on the scene. From both sides, people with true assessment of the ground reality will be obliged to find a way to avoid a “lose-lose” option.
Now imagine that, in those crucial negotiations, an over-smart “third” party, full of yikkety yak, was involved as arbitrator or peace-maker. Would the third party’s interests not play a role in the evolving situation? If you say they play no role, I would like to sell you the Taj Mahal at a “knock-down” price.
Now imagine further that the third party is cunning enough to realize that it stands to benefit hugely if both the original quarreling parties engage in mutually self-destructive behaviour.
Need anything further be said?
Sadly, in the “globalized”, trade dominated world today, the “third” party is bigger than any other quarrelling local party. The world is all but overflowing with over-smart “global” intermediaries – even as more and more are being churned out every year from second class universities.
Whatever we may conceivably contrive to say in praise of these intermediaries, there is one thing we will never say: That they would be willing to lay down their lives in defence of their values or their culture.
A mind full of greed, lust and ego simply does not do that [see here]. People ruled by such minds cannot fight themselves. They need “cat’s paws”, puppets, mercenaries, cover stories, lies, spin. Truth does not work for them. Cover stories speak of “progress”, “freedom”, “liberal values” and what not.
An admonition for the simple person trying to understand what is going on:
Beware the voluble stranger who smiles ear-to-ear and flaunts baskets full of tempting goodies, with a temptress in blue jeans in tow. These are modern avatars of greed and lust – modern day serpents in the garden of Eden. Present day Adam must not take the bait – or else wild fires of greed, lust and eventually conflict will consume all that he cherishes.
“Geo”-politics has always been the same. Politics of the two isolated tribes mentioned above is also “geo”-politics; just that their “geo” is small.
The voluble, loud, insistent “thought-leaders” of today – if we excuse their dull and unimaginative dress codes! – are similar to tribal shamans and priests; but they are incredibly more greedy, heartless and vicious. Their bread and butter – as well as their caviar, champagne, mansions, yachts, jets and sex – all this comes from the blood, sweat and tears of common people.
Over millennia, mankind has passed all previously un-passable geographical barriers. “Geo”-politics is now global; it knows no bounds. But unbridgeable psychological barriers still remain, the roots of bloody conflicts.
War originates in a heart and a mind, through inflamed passions which drive the intellect as a mindless slave, a computer, with no room for wisdom.
***
Nothing happens without a cause. If an ordinary skirmish flares up into war, against the common well-being of the common people who got into the skirmish in the first place, there must be some agency stoking the fire. These things do not just happen. They are deliberately caused to happen, by cunning people who make huge profits from wars.
To arms traders, their financiers and their diplomat associates, any skirmish between two countries is a mouth-watering business opportunity, too juicy to pass up. “Whatever it takes!” is the business development formula, as the cabal devises a policy to – in effect – bleed the sides. After all, if the skirmish can be inflamed into a war, then instruments of destruction – and later instruments of re-construction – can both be hawked profitably.
Local leaders are brought under maddening degree of coordinated pressure.
IDEOLOGUE (or PRIEST of yikkety yak): Buddy, believe me you do not know what is good for your community. So just follow my policy prescription, and surely history will judge you as the greatest of statesmen.
ARMS MERCHANT: Buddy, rest easy. I know what you need. The arms I am offering you at a special discount will help you crush your dam**d enemy and become undisputed master of all these lands.
FINANCIER: Buddy, just exchange that material national asset of yours as collateral for this juicy, special package of finance that I have created for you to buy defence supplies.
DIPLOMAT: Buddy, I know what is best for you. Just accept the deals offered by the trader, the financier and the arms merchant, and you too will become a superpower in no time, and our very special friend.
MEDIA: Buddy, do you really want to protest or resist these cruel games of bloody exploitation? Then we will simply paint you as a demon, using paid agitators as props. Trust us, we will leave you no place to hide.
It would be naive and even foolish to imagine that this cabal would leave a loophole or weakness in its strategy and tactics.
In the final analysis, therefore, the question inexorably reduces to the eternal, existential question posed above:
Is a person willing to lay down his life in defence of his values, and his family and community’s well-being?
***
Until recently, the author used to think that the biggest business on the planet was that of energy. That view needs re-assessment.
The biggest business on this planet is that of violence, destruction, blood and misery. Sadly, it has always been so. Those who doubt this need only recall the times of Jesus Christ – and the so-called “civilization” of the time.
In nature, a common, normal phenomenon is that of two distinct life forms relating to one another as host and parasite. A mathematical model, with differential equations governing the two populations (host H and parasite P) can be written fairly easily. Under quite general conditions, the solutions predict cyclic behaviour of H and P, as shown below.
At different phases in the cycle, populations H and P behave differently. In growth phase (bottom right), both populations rise. In decay phase (top left), both populations decline. In regeneration phase (bottom left), H grows while P declines. Conversely, in over-consumption phase (top right), H declines while P grows; since that trajectory is not sustainable, decay follows.
In human societies, “third” parties which inflame skirmishes into wars, for huge private profit, seem to behave like parasites in the diagram shown above. If the applicable dynamics are similar to what occurs in nature, the social-economic-political dynamics would follow similar patterns.
Are we nearing the end of a five hundred year old cycle? Possibly. It is difficult to view the present situation in Ukraine in the light of the above analysis, but perhaps we can make a tentative attempt.
Had there not been “third” parties inflaming passions, could the internal conflict between Ukraine’s regions have been resolved? Sadly, the history of inflamed, ugly passions there seems to go back a long way. Who was it that cynically turned neighbour against neighbour in that part of the world?
***
Personal note: All said and done, where does the author stand? And where is he ready to fall? Let us say there is a dispute involving his neighbourhood and another one nearby. What should the author do?
The following seems to make sense:
Make an effort to determine which side is more in the right, using the criteria set out near the beginning of the essay. If his side is more in the right, pick up a staff and join them. If the other side is more in the right, try to reason with his side; if they will not listen, withdraw as Muhammad Ali did. Keep “third” parties out. Always hope that things do not come to such a pass.
An excellent and timely essay.
One can philosophize about values (aka virtues) all you want but that is not how they work in real life. Values are the actions we take not what we say we believe in. Values are expressed in human behavior not in words and abstract concepts. No where is this more obvious than the Ukraine war. And no where is this better illustrated than in the anti-Russian, war hysteria promoted in the “there never was a West” media.
One example, is NPR (aka as National Propaganda Radio). Several days ago, their lead “news” story stated as fact with no equivocation that Russia had bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol. At the same time National Public Radio fundraisers were touting it as “the most trustworthy news and deep-dive analysis.” There was no effort made to verify if this actually happened, let alone who was responsible, but as with so much in U.S. mainstream media and on many of the so-called left and progressive websites, the vilest propaganda was repeated over and over again without question or critical analysis. Wasn’t it the Nazi Goebbels, who said make the lie big, repeat it often enough and people will believe it.” Anyone with even modest ability for independent and critical thinking, could have found the story of the Ukrainian nurse who worked at the hospital. She told about the arrival of neo-Nazis from the Azov regiment, who took over the hospital to turn it into “fortress Mariupol.” Is anyone then surprised a false-flag story about Russian atrocities becomes the Western news cycle’s top story.
P.S. One of the few Western websites providing two sides to the Ukraine war, is Popular Resistance’s daily news digest. PR uses Disqus to moderate the comments. Yesterday, I made several comments which did not parrot the rabidly anti-Russian war hysteria on most other media. They were immediately labeled as “spam” and removed. So much for freedom of speech in the empire of lies.
Awesome article!! “There’s a crack in everything; that’s how th light gets in.”
Thank you. That was a very nice expansion on the parasite vs host dynamic, identifying the host from first principles of caring most for family.
The only thing I would add is the ability of man to be creative and actively change the environment in their favor, everything from inventions to classical music.
This too is a first order principal at play within that dynamic. Parasites gaslight their victims into reducing the importance of their human ability to discover universal principles, rendering them more beast-like. The lost potential is enormous. On the other hand when this meta-understanding of this is put into play as guiding political-economic policy, the unfolded potential increases dramatically, as in a renaissance.
“Parasites gaslight their victims into reducing the importance of their human ability to discover universal principles, rendering them more beast-like.” — A very accurate observation. That is like injecting victims with a poison. The state of media and education in a certain “sole superpower” comes to mind. Tragic. They are missing out on the most valuable of universal principles: our shared, common humanity.
@Naresh Jotwani
The Africans have a saying which goes like; “Shame is a sign of humanity / ubuntu”. Hence those who act in a manner that display lack of shame, e.g. lying with a straight face ( as all western politicians do) should be scorned & shunned by society.
This was excellent and deserves wide circulation. I think it gets to the crux of the matter in Ukraine and provides a useful way to understand what is happening there. The hatred that lies in men’s hearts is being tapped and exploited by a ‘parasitic’ (thanks for the term) empire of lies and it sure ain’t Russia. No question for me who is more right.
Excellent essay but completely reversed logic.
Host can live without parasites, but reverse is not truth (or it is the way we think).
In our hubris, lust and greed, we Human beings declared ourselves as owners of this planet, and declared all previous natural inhabitants, mostly germs as parasites.
But, sadly for us, the natural or divine truth is that we can’t live without germs. Our existence on this planet is possible only in cooperation with that so-called parasites. If we can’t accept that true, then the question is: are we the real parasite species on this planet.
So, if we want to be truthful, we should be careful what or who we call parasite. The colloquial word for a parasite killing its host is cancer. If we as species don’t want to be a cancer of this planet, it is a final point to start to behave more responsible and more cohabitant with the rest of the species on this planet.
But to do that, we first need to deal with cancer in our own group.
To avoid a long reply, man’s ability to change the environment for the better, while simultaneously developing his economy, is the worldview being suppressed by the Globalist parasite class.
They reject the Promethean ideal of man having fire and being able to use it to empower his future. To them both men and the environment need to be managed like a slave plantation by the economic royalty.
The next fire that man will yield is called fusion power, and having possession of it shall go along way towards introducing new abilities to cost-effectively recycle waste from the environment and replace fossil fuels as well.