The Artificial Kingdom

[coberst]

Rugged individualism might be an appropriate expression for all the creatures in the world, with one exception. Humans have, in the last few hundred years, moved from being rugged individuals to our present state in which we have fashioned an alien environment in which we have become chess pieces or ciphers. We have invented the Artificial Kingdom where as Simone Weil once noted “it is the thing that thinks, and the man who is reduced to the state of the thing”.

I think that we, women and men, have become chess pieces. We have become objects to be manipulated by the market and the corporation. We spend our days like the chess piece; we have a quantified value and are placed on the board and used as desired by some one who may be a real person. The real person has still the human characteristics of creativity, spontaneity, improvisation, spontaneously reactive, discontinuous, a mosaic more than syntax or cipher. Just what we find is missing when using the telephone to contact someone out there.

In an effort to understand where we are now it might help to start back in time and move forward. In frontier days each person was very much an individual. Rugged individualism was a popular expression. Each man and woman was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. Each husband and wife was a team that together could and had to do everything that was needed.

In early America we were an agricultural economy. Most families were farm families we were all rugged individualist. The farmer was very much the jack-of-all-trades and the master of his or her domain.

As we move forward in time we see this team become a man working in a factory or office and the woman was at home raising the children and maintaining the day to day necessities for all family members. She washed, cleaned, shopped, sewed, and was still much of a rugged individual. Slowly the man became a specialized worker in a clockwork factory or office.

Moving forward in history we arrive at the present moment where not only is the man working in the factory or office but the woman joins him there also.

When we examine the factory or office workspace we find a very different occupation for the man and woman than the rugged individualism of emerging history of human evolution. We no longer are masters of our own domain but are ciphers in a clockwork that functions upon modern economic principles.

A pertinent example of this mode of commodification is how we have converted what was political economics into the modern economics. Political economy is the study of social relations. It is the study of culture. Political economy focuses upon the problem of how to regulate industrialization within the context of a healthy society, it worries about the problems of labor within a context of the laborer as an end and not a commodity—an object of commerce.

Economics, however, in its modern form, has replaced political economics. Economics has removed the pesky concern about labor as being human and has replaced labor as being a commodity—an object of commerce. Modern economics is now the study of scarcity, prices, and resource allocation. Economics has legislated that labor as an end is no longer a legitimate domain of knowledge for economic consideration. In doing so, over time, society has become ignorant of such concerns. Our culture has replaced concern about humans as ends with humans as means to some other end.

In the rugged individualist mode of living the individual was creative and master even though the domain of mastery was small. An individual’s personality is dramatically effected. Labor has become an abstract quantity and calculated into the commodity produced. We are the only creatures who have completely removed ourself from what we were evolved to be. We are the only creatures removed from our grounding in an organic world. We came from a long ancestry of rugged individualist and now reside in the Artificial Kingdom. To what end only time will tell.

[SOJOURNER]

Artifical indeed.

One could go further and say that modern man now travels through this "kingdom" in individual 'pods'.

We leave the 'house/apartment pod' and enter the 'vehicle pod' to travel to the 'work pod place' where we then enter the 'work pod space'.

We communicate to one another via the 'talking pod' or the 'internet pod' and a minimum of contact with others results in a successful result.

The result of this is the engineering of an individual which feels in control of his/her environment, when in fact one could say this life is all a fantasy of an creative mind.

[chonsigirl]

"I think that we, women and men, have become chess pieces. We have become objects to be manipulated by the market and the corporation. We spend our days like the chess piece; we have a quantified value and are placed on the board and used as desired by some one who may be a real person."

I am invaluable, and am not a chess piece. I actually find that thought quite insulting, that you devalue human life to that level. Not the economic motivators behind it, but your interpretation of humans and that everything is based on material and not higher level motivators.

Who do you believe are the chess players in your life?

[coberst]

SOJO

Right on!. I have recently been reading McLuhan's "Understanding Media" and I think it is great--it was a real eye opener for me. I had looked at his "The Medium is the Message" before but never put in the effort required to understand what he was trying to say.

[coberst]

chonsigirl wrote: "I think that we, women and men, have become chess pieces. We have become objects to be manipulated by the market and the corporation. We spend our days like the chess piece; we have a quantified value and are placed on the board and used as desired by some one who may be a real person."

I am invaluable, and am not a chess piece. I actually find that thought quite insulting, that you devalue human life to that level. Not the economic motivators behind it, but your interpretation of humans and that everything is based on material and not higher level motivators.

Who do you believe are the chess players in your life?


I am not sure who may be non-chess pieces. I am convinced that there are players and I will let you in on the secret.

CA (Corporate America) has developed a well-honed expertise in motivating the population to behave in a desired manner. Citizens as consumers are ample manifestation of that expertise. CA has accomplished this ability by careful study and implementation of the knowledge of the ways of human behavior. I suspect this same structure applies to most Western democracies.

A democratic form of government is one wherein the citizens have some voice in some policy decisions. The greater the voice of the citizens the better the democracy.

In America we have PMs (policy-makers), DMs (decision-makers) and citizens. The DMs are our elected representatives and are, thus, under some control by the voting citizen. The PMs are the leaders of CA; less than ten thousand individuals, according to those who study such matters. PMs exercise significant control of DMs by controlling the financing of elections.

PMs customize and maintain the dominant ideology in order to control the political behavior of the citizens. This dominant ideology exercises the political control of the citizens in the same fashion as the consuming citizen is controlled by the same dominant ideology.

“Thomas R. Dye, Professor of Political Science at Florida State University, has published a series of books examining who and what institutions actually control and run America. To understand who is making the decisions that affect our lives, we also have to understand how societies structure themselves in general. Why the few always tend to share more power than the many and what this means in terms of both a society's evolution and our daily lives."

[chonsigirl]

“In America we have PMs (policy-makers), DMs (decision-makers) and citizens. The DMs are our elected representatives and are, thus, under some control by the voting citizen. The PMs are the leaders of CA; less than ten thousand individuals, according to those who study such matters. PMs exercise significant control of DMs by controlling the financing of elections.”

Cobert, I believe the United States is not a democracy, but a republic. The major control of the functioning government is managed by the select few, not the whole populace. (waiting for comments from AC and the rest on this) You are suggesting that the large economic entities in the United States are the majority of this select few presently administering and making governmental policies.

“PMs customize and maintain the dominant ideology in order to control the political behavior of the citizens. This dominant ideology exercises the political control of the citizens in the same fashion as the consuming citizen is controlled by the same dominant ideology.”

Dominant ideology according to whom? The corporations? I do not buy into most of their stuff, or watch their ads on TV since I view TV less then 2 hours a week. If political control becomes an issue with my own ideology, I use my rights as a citizen to protest it, suggest changes, and flood the governor’s desk or other representative of mine with my opinion. And utilize my vote every election that occurs.

I understand how societies structure themselves. As an ethnohistorian, I study native or non-Western cultures and how their societal structures and cultures were formed, and exist today; and various times have also examined different time periods of United States and other societies. Elitism is not always the best way to examine a society, although the majority of history concerns these personages. A look at the trend in historical writings the last few decades suggest an alternative approach to smaller groups and structures within society, as a better interpretation of how a society functions.

[coberst]

Girl

Yes, I am convinced that this is the case--“You are suggesting that the large economic entities in the United States are the majority of this select few presently administering and making governmental policies.” Tom Dye has written a series of books on this matter that I consider being very insightful.

The policy makers I claim to run the country would not be able to do so if the man and woman on the street understand this fact. The principal requirement for those who run the show is that the show must be continuous and invisible to the people otherwise it could not exist.

The citizen has the right to vote against the politician when the citizen feels aggrieved and the politician does not solve that aggrievment. The world we live in is ‘natural’; being natural means we are not conscious that it is artificial. Only when we understand the artificiality will we have power to change it. Policy makers have the power to keep the folks blind to their environment.

Societies do not grow like trees. Societies are constructed by the minds of those who have the power to mold the society. Those who mold the society do so in order that they continue to have the power to do so.

We are and consider ourselves to be consumers because the policy makers want it to be that way.

[coberst]

Rider



The system that keeps us on the “rat race loop” is a value system that spiritualizes production and consumption. We are consumers second only to being producers. We produce to consume so as to have something to produce. Those who run the production and consumption race track have developed the ideology that insures that we are passive sheep following instructions we no long ingest consciously. I seek to arouse our consciousness.

[Accountable]

There are those that weild great control over our society. They did not, IMO, consciously cooperate to deliberately fashion the system you speak of. Each looked at the situation he was in and made a move to best benefit himself and his situation. There was no plan.



We have lemmings, sheep, in our society. It is a great frustration to see able, intelligent people give their personal power away. It is a greater frustration to me personally to see people who are themselves successful support the system that disables others, believing the very propaganda they themselves give lie to.



To say there is a system in place that controls our society propagates the lie. No one controls a human unless that human allows himself to be controlled. Go spread that message if you truly wish to raise conciousness.

[BTS]

Good morning coberst....

I don't have much time this AM but will throw a few jabs out in reply.







Where do you get these thoughts from?

QUOTE:

"Humans have, in the last few hundred years, moved from being rugged individuals to our present state in which we have fashioned an alien environment in which we have become chess pieces or ciphers."



Let's look at that statement, which is the crux of your argument I believe.



Tell my father who was raised on a horse from the time he could walk then on to other hard working jobs and now at 78 is so stove up with a hip replacement and 2 stainless steel knee joints, go on, tell him he is now and was never a rugged individual.

Tell the GI grunt that stormed Normandy or Iwo Jima he was not a rugged individual.

Come on down to my subdivision and tell the guy humping mud for the mason he is not a rugged individual (can I hide and watch:-3 )



I take a little different view on this than Far and Acc (but not much), in that we are continually evolving and it seems you are suggesting we are to the point of completing our evolution and now we are a bunch of ZOMBIES following the corporate traps and lies.



Your assumption would work if we could go back to the "OLD WAYS" and throw out the cars and all that we now do to just "SURVIVE". We live in a capitalistic world and I know a socialistic view just abors capitalism.



So tell us how do we get back to being so called "rugged individuals again"?

(although I think there are still plenty of so rugged individuals around today)



I know we all say, boy those pioneers who blazed across these United States (my family included) were such rugged individuals and had so many hardships and they did, but we do too.

We live in a entirely different world and time than they did. They did not know about GPS or even the combustion engine for that matter. We have more stress in that we are at the mercy of more things we do not have control over such as the prime interest rate the cost of gas, food etc....

They had more control over their environment because the lived off the land and had to work more in harmony with it ie farmers, ranchers.

It would be great to go back to the "OLD WAYS" but it ain't a gonna happen unless the socialist move takes hold and can convince enough people that ummm how did you put it? Oh yah



quote "we have become chess pieces or ciphers."



My point is we are not just pawns as such we are still doing what we have to do to survive and feed our families. There are still plenty of rough tough and kick your butt kinda guys in the world and if you don't like the way a capitalistic system works, I hear China is "Looking for a FEW good men"

[coberst]

Rider

Yes you are free to become an outlaw or exile whenever you desire.

[coberst]

BTS

It is difficult to find a way to stand outside of our environment so that we can better understand it. I have recently read McLuhans book “Understanding Media” it contains a great deal of insight about such matters. His book does not just speak only of the media but all forms of technology.