"The free mind abhors competition. It sides
with its opponent.

It is too well aware that, though defeats
may lay us low, victories annhilate us.

A man who can overcome defeat will be wiped out,
disintegrated by victory.

The free mind loathes the two base thoughts implicit in
"victory" and "defeat."

All that hinders the mind from forming *all possible*
combinations of ideas debases it in its essential function-
which is that of forming them....

Antagonists are merely polarities of one and the same
system, a system that itself is changeful and will pass
away...

It feels that fits of anger grievances-like joys- are so
many losses of freedom; as the creaks and tremors of a
motor and so many losses of its driving power...

Our whole existence is an injustice; our
intelligence an offense *per se*- perhaps the most cruelly
resented of all."

Paul Valery
*Analects*
"Odds and Ends"

*****

The Final Destruction of the Nobodies


The prevalence of manipulation and
counter-manipulation with its raw,
constantly mutating,
increasingly virulent forms of propaganda
via group persuasion is a direct
outcome of the continuous,
ever increasingly fragmented, divided
and traumatized
condition of humanity.
It is easy enough, particularly when outraged by
an abuser, to disconnect someone's
use of power from their inner or outer
felt vulnerabilities- the ultimate source
of such driven, compulsive need to control.
The "powerful"
always know how to disguise
their feelings of anxiety and insecurity.
Feelings of outrage of the victims of
power struggles serve the interests of the
exploiters of power struggles. Manipulative,
power- oriented people require the use of divide
and conquer strategies. Nations, systems,
poems, ideas, people
have to be "bad" or "good," "in" or "out."
The knee-jerk application
of "oedipal" interpretations misses this point,
because this interpretation focuses on
power struggle which is what the powerful
and would be powerful always want. Whether
such people are generals, politicians, nurses,
corporate bosses or poet- leaders, what
the powerful always want is to encourage power struggle
and a constant focus on issues of control and authority.
The powerful almost always win in a power
struggle. What is lost in a power struggle?
The usual victims of power struggles are autonomy,
caring, sensitivity, thought, revery,
contemplativeness, composure,
freedom, independence, overview,
philosophical awareness. The "winners" of power
struggles are the manipulative users of them.
"Winners" and "losers" alternate roles in a
never-ending game of sado-masochistic
musical chairs. All the players of the game
are both winners and losers. The better
one becomes at losing, the better one
becomes at a winning.

In fact, probably nearly
every third or fourth grader
is capable of recognizing, if not
comprehending, that
the underlying cause of all
power struggle is insecurity.
This knowledge doesn't stop
anybody who wants
power from using manipulation.
The person who
indulges in manipulation is a person who
has learned to fake caring and
interest and
to substitute constant goal- oriented
behavior on their own behalf, or on
the behalf of their group of supporters.
Such people
come across as having leadership potential,
sometimes charisma and charm.
especially if they surround themselves with
an aura of infinite energy and available resources,
personal or social. Leaders like this
extend a false
hope of coherence during an
incoherent era.

It's an exhilarating thing to see when
people work together on their
own behalf. All too often,
power seeking individuals exploit
what they see as weakness in
people they are competing with.
They will isolate competitors, exclude them,
fail to acknowledge their accomplishments,
dismiss or criticize or ridicule them socially,
all in the spirit of furthering their own
little circle, aspiring to empower themselves
and their sub-group of supporters.
In any case, the idea of independence
must be connected with the idea of
isolation of disempowerment. This way
the individuals participating in the circle of
winning and losing are the new winners,
the new conquerors, the new aspirants
filled with hopes for victory. "Let the
marginalized and the separate take
notice!" their gestures signal.
"You are not one of us! You
will be forgotten and ignored.
Your bad work and bad ideas are nothing.
You are 'little unimportant people.'
We are the big people deserving of
ever-increasing acknowledgement and
respectful gestures."

The cycle is endlessly reborn
with each new would-be person of power.
"You know what you have to do. Now go for it!"
There's no time for snivelling sympathy and so-called
"humanism." We all know such are the pawns
of the powerful. "Only we initiates know the true
political, religious, philosophical or aesthetic truth,"
they assure themselves.
"And we are a closed group.
No one who doesn't closely follow our private
signals and codes will be recognized
and permitted to be
one of us. They’d better
join us in our power play and also be the conquerors.
The others will just be out there by themselves
deluding themselves that they are some bodies.
When we insiders know they are nothing and nobody.
They are nobodies."