Today's world no longer makes sense the way yesterday's did. What was once to be praised and desired above all else has been found wanting, from the government to the professions, and even our own family way of life. Today's world is a story of every man for himself. Remarkably, this state of affairs bears considerable resemblance to the end of days as predicted in the writings of Thomas Hobbes. He spoke of it as the Leviathan.
Our own Leviathan differs from Hobbes' creation insofar as it is not a natural state brought about by the inevitable decline of the world before the forces of nature, but rather a state brought about by means of the oppressive matrix under which we live. We have become a civilisation of consumers, constrained by our own narcissistic inward-looking outlook.
Now that narcissism has taken hold in this way, life has become a series of zero-sum games each with only two possible outcomes. Either we will be winners or we will be losers. If the previous order may be called the realm of community, of looking out for our neighbours, today's world is one of adversarial competitive interests. Everyone is looking out for him or herself, and any sense of mutual responsibility and mutual benefit is now dismissed as a thing of the past. The only way to win in the game of life is to get one over on the competition be doing unto them before they do unto us. Unlike in Hobbes' vision, however, today's competitors are all salesmen, each trained to hide his blatant self-interest beneath a veil of lies and deceit. Everyone presents themselves as likable for the benefit of others and of keeping up appearances, while on the inside they are plotting against one another with a feverish constancy. This way of living has produced a world in which only the most superficial forms of human relationships can be maintained. Social interaction becomes a tool for manipulation, rather than a way to escape from it.
Central to the machine which drove the rise and fall of the sub-prime sector in recent years were the investment bankers, each of whom convinced himself that he was acting as he did not out of selfishness and greed, but out of a benevolent ambition to support himself, his family, his clients, his country and the global economy. It would be all too easy to write these bankers off as the rot at the heart of the system, but the truth goes deeper than that. Rather than being responsible for the system which brought us to this point, they are the products of it. Like us, they can operate only according to the rules of The Game - a phenomenon which has engulfed our entire society and which now dictates what we can and cannot choose to achieve.
The more we see our communities break down, the more we are driven to feed the consumer economy. Narcissistic consumers believe they are entitled to take whatever they can get from society, and turn a blind eye to its transgressions. In this world of every-man-for-himself it is hardly surprising that communities are unsustainable, since no one is willing to repose trust in anyone else. This enforced individualism makes it very difficult to issue any serious challenge to the status quo, and the collective mentality becomes a controlling mechanism keeping us all in check. Capitalism has achieved what communism could not - a society which regulates itself, generating an infinite quantity of mistrust which strikes at the very heart of morality. Secure in the knowledge that they will go unchallenged, governments use this new state of affairs to strip the individual of his civil liberties, leaving him bare to the vindictiveness of the world. If this happens gradually enough, the majority of people won't even notice the change.
If you need proof of this process, look at the Patriot Act passed into the law in the US following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001. Justified on the principle of national security, this document provided for the arrest and indefinite detention without charge of any individual deemed to pose a threat by central government. What form this "threat" might take was left unexplained, a deliberate vagueness allowing for the legislation to be adapted to suit the needs of the government of the day. As terrorism can never be defeated, but is rather endemic, the justification for such a law will never disappear, and having it repealed is thus difficult to achieve.
This may have been a Republican Bill, but the problem extends across both sides of the political divide. Each side uses their own rhetoric and their own examples, but the thrust of the argument remains the same. With society in the state it is in now our political parties cannot be the answer. The only way to address the threat to our rights and liberties is to stand together as private individuals united in a common cause and tell our government that enough is enough! What happens next is up to you.
Our own Leviathan differs from Hobbes' creation insofar as it is not a natural state brought about by the inevitable decline of the world before the forces of nature, but rather a state brought about by means of the oppressive matrix under which we live. We have become a civilisation of consumers, constrained by our own narcissistic inward-looking outlook.
Now that narcissism has taken hold in this way, life has become a series of zero-sum games each with only two possible outcomes. Either we will be winners or we will be losers. If the previous order may be called the realm of community, of looking out for our neighbours, today's world is one of adversarial competitive interests. Everyone is looking out for him or herself, and any sense of mutual responsibility and mutual benefit is now dismissed as a thing of the past. The only way to win in the game of life is to get one over on the competition be doing unto them before they do unto us. Unlike in Hobbes' vision, however, today's competitors are all salesmen, each trained to hide his blatant self-interest beneath a veil of lies and deceit. Everyone presents themselves as likable for the benefit of others and of keeping up appearances, while on the inside they are plotting against one another with a feverish constancy. This way of living has produced a world in which only the most superficial forms of human relationships can be maintained. Social interaction becomes a tool for manipulation, rather than a way to escape from it.
Central to the machine which drove the rise and fall of the sub-prime sector in recent years were the investment bankers, each of whom convinced himself that he was acting as he did not out of selfishness and greed, but out of a benevolent ambition to support himself, his family, his clients, his country and the global economy. It would be all too easy to write these bankers off as the rot at the heart of the system, but the truth goes deeper than that. Rather than being responsible for the system which brought us to this point, they are the products of it. Like us, they can operate only according to the rules of The Game - a phenomenon which has engulfed our entire society and which now dictates what we can and cannot choose to achieve.
The more we see our communities break down, the more we are driven to feed the consumer economy. Narcissistic consumers believe they are entitled to take whatever they can get from society, and turn a blind eye to its transgressions. In this world of every-man-for-himself it is hardly surprising that communities are unsustainable, since no one is willing to repose trust in anyone else. This enforced individualism makes it very difficult to issue any serious challenge to the status quo, and the collective mentality becomes a controlling mechanism keeping us all in check. Capitalism has achieved what communism could not - a society which regulates itself, generating an infinite quantity of mistrust which strikes at the very heart of morality. Secure in the knowledge that they will go unchallenged, governments use this new state of affairs to strip the individual of his civil liberties, leaving him bare to the vindictiveness of the world. If this happens gradually enough, the majority of people won't even notice the change.
If you need proof of this process, look at the Patriot Act passed into the law in the US following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001. Justified on the principle of national security, this document provided for the arrest and indefinite detention without charge of any individual deemed to pose a threat by central government. What form this "threat" might take was left unexplained, a deliberate vagueness allowing for the legislation to be adapted to suit the needs of the government of the day. As terrorism can never be defeated, but is rather endemic, the justification for such a law will never disappear, and having it repealed is thus difficult to achieve.
This may have been a Republican Bill, but the problem extends across both sides of the political divide. Each side uses their own rhetoric and their own examples, but the thrust of the argument remains the same. With society in the state it is in now our political parties cannot be the answer. The only way to address the threat to our rights and liberties is to stand together as private individuals united in a common cause and tell our government that enough is enough! What happens next is up to you.
About the Author:
John Berling Hardy is dedicated to helping people free themselves from the grand illusion perpetrated by the players. For more of his writings please visit www.playingtheplayers.com
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