By Rei Tanotsuka, 22 October 2020
Readers who follow me, will know that I grew up in the land down under, but received my protracted epiphanies only after I left Australia and witnessed the incredible hypocrisy of the Anglo Western mind.
For the longest time, I have sought to understand why and how the hubris develops in the Empire’s children, and I honestly am still shackled in the mental quandary today.
Why doesn’t the average Anglo Westerner understand how egregious their actions are?
How are they able to argue that it was for the overall good when Neoliberalism plunders every society into 2 segregated classes of extreme wealth and abject poverty?
How can they in all good faith, claim that they are egalitarian because they live in a multicultural society DUE TO THE FACT THAT THEY DESTROYED the homes of the migrants who now share their space? Click here to read
How can they claim that they are progressive when in Buddhist/ Hindu cultures, persecution of gay people never even BEGAN? How is CORRECTING their OWN mistake “progressive”?
How can they think America, with 800 overseas MILITARY BASES is NOT a global menace, but China with ONE, is?
How is it that they feel racism is exacted on them WHEN NO ILL TREATMENT OCCURRED? Western people feel racism when they don’t get preferential treatment! Yet on the flip side, they try to justify putting black people in zoos! If this wasn’t so horrendous and true, I would guffaw!
I would chalk it all down to being born in a racist comatose state, and as true as that may be, this won’t fly for those of us who enjoy delving deeper. So this is what this post is about. I’m going deeper, to try to explain the discord of why Anglo Westerners especially, are the way they are.
I mean we all know that our physiology is largely the same, and our environment which is ordained by nature does not discriminate, so how is it that one group has arisen to become especially dominant and avaricious?
This child preacher represents the formative years of my life, where my white Aussie friends from school would always iterate my future ‘eternal damnation’ because I wasn’t Christian. I never once in kind, told them they would suffer any calamity because they didn’t share MY world view! Even as a wee lass, I had the common sense to argue why a nomenclature would matter MORE THAN my personal conduct? The answers they gave were not satisfactory then, nor are they now.
I thank my fiesty Singaporean mum for always giving everything to me straight. Mum simply said my friends were nuts and to not pay attention to them as long as I was a good person.
Why is it that under all our myths, which is embedded in our subconscious regarding the plethora of archetypes which manifest as individual characteristics, is the Anglo West (as a monolith) not able to exercise nuance? Have we not reached the conclusion that these characteristics are not parceled out in their entirety to any one individual, but rather we are a variegated entity compromising of ALL those characteristics?
“You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked; For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together. And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also.” from ” The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran
I am not religious per se, but I am interested in how non secular beliefs structure our thoughts, because religion is the primal form of mind control of a society at large.
If our bodies and brains are indeed more alike than different, then maybe it’s the religious confinements which keep us in a bondage of aggression or passivity?
The Creation Myth
*Those who are interested in Creation Myth comparisons, I recommend this book, “Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions” by T. W. Doane
I wanted to examine the Creation Myths of the major religions to see if ‘original sin’ was a part of their theological evolution. Why? Because original sin is a concept that begets a series of redemption clauses. Being flawed to begin with, means we will forever chase the ‘corrective’ measure to become ‘normal’.
We can also foresee that once a ‘correction’ belief is in play, it bifurcates into two main bodies of thought : ARE THERE MULTIPLE WAYS to be saved, or only ONE?
The West broadly speaking, believes that there is only ONE WAY, which is incredulous because in the Bible for Learners, Yahweh says”: ‘See, the man has become as ONE OF US, knowing good and evil;’. “One of us”, would mean that there is more than ONE God, and if we materialised as beings who are subject to so many personality variations, are we to esteem that our creators are mass manufactured with no individual whims?
The Anglo West has perplexed me, in that the thanatos for destruction is coupled with the desire to construct a utopia from anew. This ‘destroy and rebuild’ instinct is ensconced in so many Western ideologies, everything from immanentizing the eschaton in Christianity, to Friedman’s shock economic theory, or as Naomi Klein calls it, ‘Disaster Capitalism’. The Anglo West delights in nothing more than to destroy the existing structure and rebuild from the grounds of tabula rasa.
Surprisingly, I found that the Creation Myth of an Eden and the fall of humankind is NOT unique to the West. Many cultures which have attempted cosmogony, share the same ‘Fall’ story albeit with different names.
The Avesta account (known as Zoroastrianism) of the Creation story states that Ahuramazdâ created the first man and woman, Mashya and Mashyâna, and they were joined together at the back. Plato’s Symposium has a variation on this idea too.
The Egyptians, under the reign of the god Râ, experienced a flourishing golden era before it was lost, and the Greeks, as told by Hesoid said that:
“Men lived like Gods, without vices or passions, vexation or toil. In happy companionship with divine beings, they passed their days in tranquillity and joy, living together in perfect equality, united by mutual confidence and love. The earth was more beautiful than now, and spontaneously yielded an abundant variety of fruits. Human beings and animals spoke the same language and conversed with each other. Men were considered mere boys at a hundred years old. They had none of the infirmities of age to trouble them, and when they passed to regions of superior life, it was in a gentle slumber.”
The Hindus believed in the sacred mountain Meru, which is perpetually bathed in glorious sunshine, whose lofty summit reaches into heaven and no sinful man can exist. A dreadful dragon guards the place which was filled with celestial plants and trees, watered by four rivers.
The Age of Virtue in ancient China told of a time where food was plentiful, and humans lived in peace with the animals. This version of paradise, once again featured the infamous apple tree, called “apples of immortality,” guarded by a winged serpent (dragon). Men never had to toil for their meals because food was abundant and peace and harmony rested in every soul.
So what went wrong?
I personally think 2 thought evolutions contributed to our ‘demise’ if we take the metaphorical Eden as our foundation.
The ability to enumerate, lead to the creation of technology, propagating the emotions of greed, jealousy and power. How? My conjecture is that when we discovered the notion of numbers, the corollary is to contemplate what happened before ONE, our first existential question. If we were nothing before we became ONE living being, will we return to the ‘nothing’ again?
The flipside would be what will happen AFTER ONE, leading to the idiosyncratic desire to prepare for the future, enabling technological developments to accrue for cultivating goods to stockpile. The expansion on the idea to prepare for the future naturally leads to avarice.
The East Africans, especially in the Calabar legend of the Creation, names ‘technology’ or the practice of agriculture as the downfall of humanity. The Calabar myth tells of the first pair who had meals upon the ringing of a bell by the Calabar God, Abasi. Everything they were given, they were grateful for and never demanded more. Once this pair ate from the tree of knowledge, the desire to till the land for their own profit materialised and man became mortal. From then on, he could only eat the bread which he cultivated by his own sweat.
Rei, some of us are NOT religious, can you talk SECULAR?
I don’t believe in a literal Eden or the fall, but I do recognise the importance of stories and myths in structuring the way we think. It’s not happenstance that all our heroes achieve superhuman feats while looking dashing, and our villains are step parents, old maidens and family feud proponents. We reserve the archetype of the evil stepmother, a twin to the wicked mother in law, still to this day. We find it difficult to accept, let’s say a younger woman feeling jealousy and attacking an older woman, but have no qualms in accepting prima facie, the reverse.
When I found out that the “Fall” wasn’t unique to Western religious beliefs, I wondered how the Anglo West took the myth to such extremes, with no parallel Eastern or African nation reaching the egregious heights of unabated and arduous enslavement of the masses according to an immobile racial hierarchy. How did they justify these savage acts as part of their redemption?
I have already written about how racism began in Europe, juxtaposed to the usual xenophobia exercised between all outgroup vs ingroup people, to read click When China Ruled the World. What I wanted to know however, was how the cavalier cruelty of putting people in zoos, using ‘science’ and religion to ‘prove’ an OBVIOUS BI PEDAL being as an ‘animal’, and being able to find solace in brutalising a group of people for 400 years, arose? What is it with the Western Imperial reign that made it exceptionally cruel, bloody and protracted? And why to this present day, do the Anglo Westerners still exercise this hubris in demarcating which nations are to be destroyed and rebuilt in the image of themselves?
Putting the colonised people in zoos sans REMORSE :
The difference between the way white slaves were treated BY THE COLOURED PEOPLE vs how White people treated their African slaves: *the following passages are taken from “White Slavery in the Barbary States” by Charles Sumner, E. R. Billings.
“Travellers remark the generally kind treatment bestowed by Mohammedans upon slaves. 135 The lash rarely, if ever, lacerates the back of the female; the knife or branding iron is not employed upon any human being to mark him as the property of his fellow-man.”
“Captain Braithwaite, who accompanied the British minister to Morocco in 1727, in order to procure the liberation of the British captives, after describing their comfortable condition, adds, “I am sure we saw several captives who lived much better in Barbary than ever they did in their own country.”“
So what is the REAL PROBLEM with white slavery, actually with MOST white people who claim to have experienced racism at the hands of the coloured minions? If my own personal experiences are to mean anything, an Anglo Westerner feels mal treatment WHEN THEY DON’T RECEIVE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT from coloured people. Yes, I said it! White people are subject to the normal rigours of a social hierarchy among themselves based solely on their attributes, yet when they step foot in Asia, Africa or the Middle East, somehow they feel singed if they are not at the top! If the red carpet is not rolled out for them, IT’S THE SAME AS water boarding them!
The most common quibble I get in Japan from Anglo Western men is that they do not get the hot chicks, have low career prospects and that they need guarantors to execute any financial transaction… guess what Twinkles? So do the JAPANESE!!
My husband who is Japanese through and through, STILL needed a guarantor initially when he started his business! Until you establish yourself to not be a flight risk, you need a guarantor! This is NOT RACISM, this is the NORMAL way Japanese financial institutions are run!
Low career prospects? First of all, in their native land, their “career prospects” rested somewhere between social welfare recipient and pooch walker, so now that they are in Asia, they should be knighted as a Forbes 500 CEO? On the basis of what? Melanin deficiency? Yet never do Anglo Westerners protest and feel vexation that their taxi driver (now Uber), dry cleaner or gardner in Australia /America /Canada etc is a qualified neurosurgeon, aeronautical engineer and accountant in their motherland!
As for not getting the ‘hot chicks’, DAMN as if they could even get an UGLY CHICK back at home! 90% of the white guys who come to Asia (no offence) can’t even SCORE ‘FRUMPY’ BACK in their own country, yet in Asia they suddenly feel they deserve the Asian equivalent of Kaia Gerber??
“The kindness of the slave master often appears. The English merchant Abraham Brown, whose sale at Sallee has been already described, makes known, in his memoirs, that, after he had been carried to the house of his master, his wounds were tenderly washed and dressed by his master’s wife, and “indeed the whole family gave him comfortable words.” He was furnished with a mat to lie on, “and some three or four days after provided with a shirt, such a one as it was, a pair of shoes, and an old doublet.” His servile toils troubled him less than “being commanded by a negro man, who had been a long time in his patron’s house a freeman, at whose beck and command he was obliged to be obedient for the doing of the least about the house or mill;” and he concludes his lament on this degradation as follows: “Thus I, who had commanded many men in several parts of the world, must now be commanded by a negro, who, with his two country women in the house, scorned to drink out of the water pot I drank of, whereby I was despised of the despised people of the world.””
*note: the REAL reason for stopping the WHITE SLAVE TRADE ISN’T DUE TO EXCESSIVE CRUELTY, it was that simply not being at the top is akin to “torture” for white people! Taking instructions from the COLOURED PEOPLE is the same as physical torture for white people!
Can we argue that the West wasn’t exceptionally cruel because contemporaneously speaking, everyone was equally as barbaric then? NOPE.
“In Morocco, negroes are still detained as slaves; but the prejudice of color seems not to prevail there. They have been called “the grand cavaliers of this part of Barbary.” 154 They often become the chief magistrates and rulers of cities. 155 They constituted the body guard of several of the emperors, and, on one occasion at least, exercised the prerogative of the Prætorian cohorts, in dethroning their master. 156 If negro slavery still exists in this state, it has little of the degradation connected with it elsewhere.”
So if it’s not religious indoctrination … is it….. MAOA?
Now we are reaching a sensitive topic. MAOA is monoamine oxidase A, and it is the main enzyme to degrade serotonin. Serotonin is the happy, relaxant neurotransmitter. If we have normal functioning MAOA, we are generally pretty chill. Genetics is always contentious, but we have no reason to think that the Western scientific community is biased towards their own compatriot. We are not talking about Third Reich “science”, these are people who study genetics sans political intentions.
“Perhaps the most interesting and highly provocative piece of information concerning monoamine oxidase A relates to its linkage to male aggression and violence. The most common allele found in humans is the 3R allele, with approximately one-third of men in “Western” countries carrying this form of the gene. Although the 3R allele is thought to be related to aggression in males, the 2R allele is the form of the MAOA gene that correlates with more severe violent impulses. The violent tendencies associated with the gene are interesting in and of themselves, but the truly provocative and controversial implications of this discovery can only be realized after examining how this gene is distributed among different groups of people. The 3R allele is found in 36% of Caucasian males, 54% of Asian males, and 58% of Black males. The 2R allele is found in .00067% of Asians males, .9% of Caucasian males, and 5.5% of Black males. It is clear why these figures are controversial, as people can (and do) use this as the basis for a sort of new Eugenics.” Human Gene Project
Please read the above CAREFULLY. The 3R is connected to the male instinct of aggression and I would say it is probably akin to the ‘normal’ level associated with having testosterone (maybe a little more ‘enhanced’). The 2R is the dangerous one.
“In 2008, University of North Carolina sociologist Guang Guo and his colleagues found that antisocial behaviors in male youth were associated with three genes — low-activity MAOA variants and two dopamine-related genes [19]. But it was 2R — the “extreme warrior gene” — that captivated researchers searching for a still illusive genetic basis of criminal predispositions. Guo’s team analyzed data on male youth from Add Health — a national sample of adolescents in grades 7-12. Their findings showed that the rare variant, 2R, was correlated with higher levels of self-reported serious and violent delinquency.” Extreme Warrior Gene
So Asian men are the least violent, well how about the African Americans? Here’s the thing….
“The main enzyme for serotonin degradation, monoamine oxidase (MAO) A, has recently emerged as a key biological factor in the predisposition to impulsive aggression. Male carriers of low-activity variants of the main functional polymorphism of the MAOA gene (MAOA-uVNTR) have been shown to exhibit a greater proclivity to engage in violent acts.
Our results revealed a robust (P<0.0001) association between low-activity MAOA-uVNTR alleles and violent crime. This association was replicated in the group of Caucasian violent offenders (P<0.01), but reached only a marginal trend (P=0.08) in their African American counterparts.
In summary, these findings support the role of MAOA gene as a prominent genetic determinant for criminal violence.” Association of low activity MAOA
It seems that this MAOA marker explains the violence of Western Caucasian men only. My next question was, what actually causes the mutation? At this point, I can find no more studies.
African American men….
I’m not sure if these MAOA studies ever took place in Africa, but the test subjects were incarcerated African American men. I haven’t been able to find comparable studies of African men, so I will presume that the presence of 2R is indeed highest in African men as a monolith. But what does this gene mean?
We all know that African Americans are stymied systemically. Even when they were emancipated, they were subjected to alternative forms of impediments. Did this have a bearing on the gene? We know that epigenetic factors are important in turning certain genes on.
But I want to draw the reader to historical information regarding African society ANTE-COLONIALISM. Without being oppressed and denigrated, were Africans inherently violent?
“Those benefits are felt by us in the general healthiness of the people, and in their vigour and activity; I might have added, too, to their comeliness. Deformity is indeed unknown amongst us. I mean that of shape. Numbers of the natives of Eboe, now in London, might be brought in support of this assertion: for, in regard to complexion, ideas of beauty are wholly relative. I remember while in Africa to have seen three negro children, who were tawny, and another quite white, who were universally regarded as deformed by myself and the natives in general, as far as related to their complexions.”
“Our women too, were, in my eyes at least, uncommonly graceful, alert, and modest to a degree of bashfulness; nor do I remember to have ever heard of an instance of incontinence amongst them before marriage. They are also remarkably cheerful. Indeed cheerfulness and affability are two of the leading characteristics of our nation.” *This debunks the stereotype of the angry black woman and the ubiquitous ‘twerker’.
“… we are totally unacquainted with swearing, and all those terms of abuse and reproach which find their way so readily and copiously into the language of more civilized people. The only expressions of that kind I remember were, “May you rot!” or “may you swell!” or “may a beast take you!”” This debunks the stereotype of the gangster thug.
“Those prisoners which were not sold or redeemed we kept as slaves: but how different was their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies! With us they do no more work than other members of the community, than even their master; their food, clothing, and lodging, were nearly the same as theirs, except that they were not permitted to eat with those who were free-born;” This debunks the stereotype that they were savages before the Whites ‘civilized’ them.
What causes the 180 change in people after contact with the Anglo West? Why does the West cause peaceful people to become so aggressive, wrought with a damaged self-esteem? Because the colonised can never fathom the fact that such psychopathy can exist! How can kindness be manipulated and used to torment the giver? This is an answer only an Anglo Westerner can give that won’t come across as offensive, because if you ask me, they are just evil. This is what the absence of “good” looks like.
It’s NOT every single Western individual, but as a monolith you would have to be BLIND and unscrupulous to say that the Western reign has been a boon for humanity. It has brought nothing but despair. We are ALL recovering from a state of violation, everything from our identity, our resources to our right to determination, has been forcibly ejected by ONE DOMINANT GROUP. We have projected the state of normal into one of felicity, because long ago, we accepted that we will never have parity! This little bit of coprolite that they have given us, that they called ‘equality’, is anything but.
If we truly were EQUALS we would not need to conform OUR HISTORY to their standards!
We would NOT have to reorient our economic philosophy to match theirs!
And we certainly would NOT ALLOW for them to put their FUCKING MILITARY BASES on our lands to instigate wars with OUR OWN BRETHREN!
Powhatan (Pocahontas’ grandfather) :
“Why should you take by force that from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food? What can you get by war? We can hide our provisions, and fly into the woods; and then you must consequently famish by wronging your friends. What is the cause of your jealousy? You see us unarmed, and willing to supply your wants, if you will come in a friendly manner, and not with swords and guns, as to invade an enemy. I am not so simple, as not to know it is better to eat good meat, lie well, and sleep quietly with my women and children; to laugh and be merry with the English; and, being their friend, to have copper, hatchets, and whatever else I want, than to fly from all, to lie cold in the woods, feed upon acorns, roots, and such trash, and to be so hunted, that I cannot rest, eat, or sleep. In such circumstances, my men must watch, and if a twig should but break, all would cry out, “Here comes Capt. Smith;” and so, in this miserable manner, to end my miserable life; and, Capt. Smith, this might be soon your fate too, through your rashness and unadvisedness. I, therefore, exhort you to peaceable councils; and, above all, I insist that the guns and swords, the cause of all our jealousy and uneasiness, be removed and sent away.” from “Great Speeches by Native Americans” by Bob Blaisdell
I conclude that there is NO EXPLANATION for the sanguineous thirst of Anglo Westerners…. no explanation at all. How are we all reared on the same asinine myth, yet remain uncorrupted? How can we share the same genetic mutation but not desire to manacle a group of people persistently and consistently, and hand on our hearts, look at a man and call him a beast?
If we continue to give the Anglo West a pass, we will never make any progress, we will waddle where we have always waddled before, in limbo – wanting to be left alone yet too afraid to not earn the approving glances of the dastardly Anglo bully!