Ten Demons of Domination


A short blog in which I list my Ten Demons of Domination

  1. Specialization. We are alienated from ourselves and our world by our confinement in restricted interest groups and narrow training. We are alienated in our work by being cogs in a fatal machinery of disempowerment. We build a house with one window and place bars across it. The notion of a survey, panorama and global perspective cause fear and anxiety. We doubt our capacity to understand the world and fall back into the safety of the prison house of self and narrow career paths.
  1. Age Discrimination works in many ways across contemporary society. In cases of superior seniority the older members oppress the younger. But in our highly stratified societies the younger also exclude the older. Our fashion and beauty industries promote a divided society where youth becomes the premium form of commodification.
  1. Top-down organization of society. Despite all the rhetoric of equality of opportunity (and the absence of an equalities discourse) we live in an absolutely stratified society. Inequality begins at birth and is a major determinant of stress, distress, health, happiness and (poor) life expectancy.
  1. A society that operated in a top-down fashion and which is specialized and discriminatory is also prone to Stratification in terms of qualifications, power and influence. A major gap, for instance, has opened up between the half of the population that attends University, and the other half which does not.
  1. Secrecy inhibits open conversations that could regenerate societies. Both government and corporations are prone to the creation of secret worlds.
  1. At the same time governments and corporations proclaim the right to increasing their levels of invasive Surveillance and information gathering.
  1. Terministic Screens prevent us from using language to see the world for what it really is. The rhetorical strategies of political correctness and propaganda hinder the possibility of thoughtful communication informed by feeling and emotion.
  1. Abuse. A big category of demonology in which I include a wide range of behaviours that undermine the right to free individuation; the invasion of personal space and the destruction of innocence. Bullying, Control and manipulation support the system of abuse.
  1. Celebrity idealization. Again supported by commercial and corporate interests the making of false icons destroys freedom and responsibility. It promotes vacuous and anti-communitarian life goals.  Its toxic side effects are conspicuous consumption, envy and greed.
  2. Discrimination helps to support all the partitions and divisions of a hostile society at war with itself. Discrimination is supported by a constant stream of scapegoating strategies across our media.

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