Trumpism ... Alt-Right ... Dominance and Jesus Christ

Daily, on social media, we discuss human issues under the general banner of politics. Humans have been doing this from time immemorial seemingly without ever reaching success at resolving human issues to everyone’s satisfaction.

Now we have what can be dubbed as “Trumpism” that has shaken up, disturbed and even violated the status quo once again creating strife, division, confusion and political chaos in hearts and minds.

Why?

Why has Donald Trump been so successful at challenging established norms … debasing behavioral codes … rubbishing rules of conduct … glorified mendacity … trampled over professed culture and values … discredited State institutions … attacked and subverted human rights … and invented the notion of a "deep State" ... with so much approval?

Alt-Right at Charlottesville, Virginia

Why are millions of human beings avidly supporting a grotesque debunking of the path that humanity had set itself on. Why, in particular, is America proving so susceptible to abandoning the road it was making sure and steady progress on after the iconic “I have a dream” speech by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Why is there so much support for abandoning its hitherto professed culture of equality, brotherly love and cooperation that it has been busy exporting across the planet?
Why is this atavistic culture receiving so much support across the planet in the phenomenon known as the Alt-Right? 

The answer is actually quite simple. It has to do with our DNA encoding.

You see, we were once in a cave, huddled together, fearful of just about everything out there. The

world was big … it was confusing … and it was dangerous. Darwin’s law of survival of the fittest was very much at play. It was very much a case of kill or be killed … eat or be eaten.

Note that just about all creatures were in the same situation … and reacted in the same way.  That is why we have a herd of elephants …. a troop of baboons … a flock of birds … etc. Survival has always involved banding together as a species … no question whatsoever.

Note that successful survival is not purely passive. It is not just an issue of self-defense. It also involves … and this is key … active dominance. Man, as a species, has proved most successful and become dominant because he was best at banding together to leverage collective strength.

Thus it even became the norm to invade, conquer and subjugate even other members of the human species. Until Adolph Hitler took this now entrenched culture of invade, conquer and subjugate to diabolical levels it was the universal culture across this planet.

The horrors of Hitler’s War, especially the Holocaust, induced a paradigm shift in man’s culture. For the first time in history humanity had the concept of human rights and the commitment to equality … all set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”), signed off at the United Nations after the last world war in 1948.
From that day mankind, with the exceptions of Russia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia, professed to set itself on a new path of equality, not dominance.

Mankind was repudiating what had been encoded in its DNA over the centuries of its existence as a species. It was repudiating the culture of dominance. It was abandoning what now part of its natural instincts. 

Perhaps it is to state the obvious that such repudiation of a natural instinct, so deeply embedded, was always going to be very problematical. This is so especially as we have continued to fuel this instinct in so many other respects. Our socio-economic model is absolutely geared for the achievement of dominance at all levels, personal, sectorial and nationally. The concept of achievers and under-achievers is deeply embedded. Sporting events, that thrill us to the very core, are the embodiment of this culture. Sectorial achievers enjoy iconic status be they Michael Jackson, Mohammed Ali, Meryl Streep, Bill Gates or Tiger Woods.

So the reality … the hard reality is that our genetically encoded instinct of dominance is still with us and has been available for leverage by the likes of Donald J Trump, Idi Amin, Robert G Mugabe, Vladimir Putin and the other skunks of the planet.
Common to all these skunks is a narrative, promise and commitment to dominance over “others”. “Others” comprise anybody and anything that stands in the way of that dominance.
As regards Trump this even includes established State institutions like the FBI and the CIA and the media.

Dominance is intoxicating. It is an appeal to the very core of one’s sense of being, worth and validation. Its attractiveness is as natural as breathing. It is why bullying is a never-ending problem. Ditto abusive relationships.
It is what drives racism and tribalism. It is why we have genocides. It is why we have gangs and cartels.
It is why in South Africa the reform model is to replace White dominance with so-called "Black" dominance.
So our instinct of dominance has always been there for exploitation and leverage … and Donald J Trump has succeeded quite spectacularly to date.

If you are in any doubt about this please consider the story of Jesus Christ.
Think it through.
When you do you will arrive at the point where you have to resolve His central counsel, admonition and insistence that – “Love thy neighbour as thyself … and do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.
He was repudiating the culture of dominance.
At that point He was doomed.
The Pharisees, arch protagonists of the culture of biblically based exclusion and dominance, found it all so very easy to have Him crucified.
Donald Trump's "lock her up ... lock her up" is simply his version of a crucifixion.

Trumpism … Native Nationalism … Nazism

I have a terrible sense of foreboding.
If the Republicans win today in the Mid-Terms there will be no check on Trumpism. In fact, it will gain impetus, flourish and threaten the whole planet.

This is because, like Nazism it is an ideology. It is an ideology of dominance, like Nazism.
Hitler also trumpeted “the Fatherland First” as does Trump bellowing “America First”.
With both these leaders we see the claim that other countries are taking advantage of them; laughing at them; cheating them.

With both leaders we see the culture of “us”, “them” and “others”.
It is called “native nationalism”.

It seeks to posit a race/ethnic group in the land as unique and entitled to dominance over all others, internal and external, packaged as being in the “national interest”.
“Others” become vilified, even demonized; first insidiously and then overtly. With Nazism the result was Polish and the Jews being targeted, that eventually led to the Holocaust.

With Trumpism we have seen the graduation of “immigrants”, i.e., foreigners being targeted with increasing intensity to the extent that an identifiable mass of desperate humans dubbed “the caravan” are being openly vilified and demonized.
Fox News is even trumpeting that these migrants are riddled with venereal disease.

To this we must add Trump’s repudiation of a culture of cooperation with other countries, even erstwhile allies. Other counties must be bullied into accepting dominance by America; one by one … just as Hitler sought to do.

Longstanding international agreements such as the TPP and NAFTA have been torn up with Trump then attempting to bully the countries into submitting to “America first” arrangements.
So, I have this terrible sense of foreboding. If the Republicans win these Mid-Terms Trumpism will receive a boost that will be to the detriment of world order.

Like-minded leaders like Vladimir Putin of Russia will welcome this culture and probably team up with Trump for the immediate future in any event. Tyrannical leaders like Rodriguez Duterte of the Philippines and Trump’s proxy Saudi Arabia will jump at the chance.
Rogue regimes will adopt Trumpism.

The world will change. It will be back to the pre-war era of each country for itself and “might is right”.
The World will degenerate to the situation we had at the boarding school I attended. That school had an all-powerful "Head-boy" and the rest of us divided into groups, gangs and liaisons of survival in terms of a culture of confrontation and dominance.
This Trumpism culture will inevitably endanger the whole planet and its creatures on every front imaginable.

The blood of millions shed in the last world war will have been shed in vain. That blood secured the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”).
The UDHR was a paradigm shift in the culture of mankind. For the first time mankind had the concept of human rights. For the first time countries accepted that they need to cooperate to the benefit of all humans.
For the first time it accepted that all humans are equal.
These sacred precepts will be torn to shreds in terms of native nationalistic dominance of man by man.

So please pray with me. Pray to your God. Pray with me that the Democrats win today.
The future of our children, and their children, is at stake.

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PS: -The Demicrats did win ... big ..... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2018/nov/06/us-midterms-elections-2018-latest-live-polls-news-updates-donald-trump-republicans-democrats

"Black" ... Dump the mantle of oppression !

We don't accept the label "Kaffir” ... and yet the label "Black" and the label "Kaffir" were both invented in order to de-humanize us and oppress us. 

1.  The Label "Black"
The label “Black” was invented in the slave/plantation owning deep south of America to lump together all those with just “one drop” of African blood for the purpose of oppression even if they were as white as snow with green eyes.
Please check these links “Jim Crowe” and “one drop rule”.

The label was then imported into Africa for the purposes of oppression and used for that purpose, taking dominance over the label “kaffir”.

If we review the struggle we find that there was a complete absence of any reference to “Black” and instead we have this about how the African National Congress, the oldest liberation movement in Africa, was started:-
“The organisation was initially founded as the South African Native National Congress

(SANNC) on 8 January 1912 by Saul Msane (Esq.), Josiah Gumede, John Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Sol Plaatje along with chiefs, people's representatives, and church organisations, and other prominent individuals to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms”.

The primary reason why we fell in love with it is because, having been labelled “Black” we were all in the “one drop” camp and that camp united to mount a struggle against oppression led by the likes of Dr Martin Luther King in America and Nelson Mandela and others in Africa.

Certainly, it is useful to retain the label in America, because our brothers and sisters there are still suffering racial oppression. However, here in Africa, have we not overcome racial oppression?

It is like being made to wear a sack by a bully. You then rid yourself of the bully … but continue wearing the sack? It is really that simple. But we are creatures of habit and have become imprisoned by the habit. Man has done this throughout history. It is why we find it difficult to abandon culture, even if it is bad culture. However we no longer ask a medicine man dressed in skins and feathers to come and smell out who has bewitched our sick child.
Because we are a species known as homo sapiens, endowed with the power of reason we really do need to take stock, review and realize that we are still wearing the sack of oppression and dump it. 

It would be different if it was still useful, as it is in America, especially as that country now has an overtly racist President.
In reality it has no utility in Africa and actually has a number of bad outcomes.

2.  Exclusion. 
As indigenous Africans are the majority in Africa, labeling themselves as “Black” immediately excludes everybody else that is “not black”.

Example: I am 50% English and 50% Ndebele.
Anthropologically, genetically, visually I simply cannot be either “black” or “white”.
You have excluded me and so many others as our nations of Africa have long since comprised so many “others”.
Exclusion is very bad because it induces social exclusion with this result:-
“exclusion from the prevailing social system and its rights and privileges, typically as a result of poverty or the fact of belonging to a minority social group”.
Africa is a very rich mixture of many races, ethnic groups and tribes. No group should be in danger of feeling excluded.

3.  Nation Building.
Nation building becomes an unavoidable causality.  For humans to be a nation they have to first define and reference themselves as one. They have to have a shared culture. Self-definition and referencing is at the very heart of a shared culture. Persons who define themselves as French and English can never be part of one nation.

So we ensure that some/many of our people suffer from what is called “cultural exclusion”.
All human rights experts will confirm that this is a very bad thing, especially as it induces psychological alienation and this can and does precipitate problems on any number of levels.

4.  Hurting our children.
 (Confirm this with a psychologist)
From a very early age we progressively develop a self-image.
That image is either positive or negative or problematical.

There is a direct relationship between that self-image and our ability to develop to our full potential.
Confusion is the enemy here … a big enemy.
Confusion about self-image is most often a precursor to becoming an underachiever, a sociopath or even a criminal.
So, when your child looks at him/herself in the mirror he/she can see exactly what colour he/she is.
When you then insist that he/she is “black”, when the child can see that this not the case, you are confusing your child on a very precious commodity, i.e. his/her self-image.
In my life I have only met about 4 people who are actually black.
You are damaging your child psychologically in a very pernicious way. You are endangering your child as you are messing with his/her self-image and endangering the child’s development.
Perhaps this is why our African governments and societies are just not succeeding.

5.  Specific Proof of The Problem.
If you take Coloured folk as an example it is much easier to see the issues as set out above..Coloured folk are an admixture of many races and ethnic groups. Cape Coloureds, on their indigenous side, are mostly Khoisan. By no stretch of the imagination can it be said that the Khoisan were ever considered as part of the Nguni people, let alone “black”.

In addition Coloured folk range from “midnight black” to “snow white” in complexion.
So when you define yourself as “black” you are excluding this community. You are also really messing with the minds of their children when you enact policies and laws that say Coloureds are black. They are not. They are persons of colour.

6.  Ask yourself a question.
In this region do we think, imagine or suppose that the races and different ethnic groups are united?
Do we think, imagine or suppose that all the races and ethnic groups see themselves as one nation?
You only have to listen to an interactive radio program, on virtually any issue, to realize that the region is as racially and ethnically divided as Denmark is to Malawi.
Our politicians don’t mind this because they encourage the majority to see others as a problem and reason for the disadvantages they suffer to cover up government failure, corruption and ineptitude.
Now is it wise … is it prudent … is it smart to have our people divided?
Should we not prefer to have people that see themselves as one … all pulling together in one direction?

7.  Using myself as an example.
I started life in an institution for deprived children in racist Rhodesia. However I managed to make my life a success and rose to serve as a High Court Judge in two (2) different countries and an expert advisor to three (3) governments.
There is no way that I could have done this without help.
I received help from members of just about every race and ethnic group … indigenous African, Jew, Portuguese, Greek, Afrikaner and Asian in particular. I could NOT have succeeded without that help.

8. The Other
What all of the above also guarantees is the very regrettable social phenomenon of "The Other".
Please go here -- https://coginito.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-other.html?zx=98ff4fec55d145ae

9.  So how should we define and reference ourselves?
This is how -- in this descending order ...
a) as a human;
b) as African;
c) as South African or Zimbabwean;
d) as citizens;
e) as Shona, Kalanga, Zulu, Shangaan, Coloured, Portuguese, Hindu, Pedi, Venda, Muslim … etc.
In short we should be concerned with our race and ethnicity ONLY when this unavoidably arises and just dump this “Black” label of oppression.

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Note that in the United Kingdom our people are always referred to as “black”. Then Meghan Markle arrived and was set to marry into Royalty. Not one news house, print or broadcast, would refer to as “Black”, even though like me, she has African blood. Right there we see the proof that “Black’ is the stinky label of oppression. The British media know it. Why don’t we?

And note that Caucasians do not define and reference themselves as "white". They will say "I am an Englishman" ... or "I am a Russian" .... never "I am White". 

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Yes, it is difficult to change that which we are accustomed to. However please understand that man would have never advanced as a species if the status quo had remained unchallenged. Change started for the advancement of man when we were still in a cave and one of us came in with burning embers from a forest fire, started by lightning, and said – “Let us cook this meat instead of eating it raw”.

At every stage we only advanced as a species when there was change.

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Interesting also was what happened in many cases involving the issue of identity. An indigenous African witness is asked to describe who he/she says committed the particular offence in issue. The witness is pressed on the issue of identity –

Prosecutor: How can you be absolutely certain that it was the accused in the dock?

Witness: Because he is ugly

Prosecutor: What do you mean when you say that he is ugly?

Witness: Because he is black

As said, colour based prejudice is simply not the sole preserve of any particular ethnic group. 

Extract from my book  -- http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/The%20Other%20-%20without%20fear,%20favor%20or%20prejudice.html

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I should add that the most beautiful female I have ever seen was actually black, I mean black ... coal black.
My daughter and I met her in a lift in what was then Salisbury.
My daughter, who never wanted to be black, turned to me and gasped- "Dad, did you see that lady .. sooo beautiful.!!!"
Till today we both agree that she was the most beautiful woman we have ever seen.
She was from Ethiopia.

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And this "Black" thing leads to this ---- "Whites and Indians will be barred from new pro-Zuma political party"

 https://www.timeslive.co.za/amp/politics/2018-07-26-whites-and-indians-will-be-barred-from-new-pro-zuma-political-party/?__twitter_impression=true
... proving betond all doubt that my plea/appeal is well founded.

___________________________________________________________________________

And this is what we then get as at 26 July 2018  --- a diabolical different standard for us "Blacks" that equates to pernicious racist bigotry ... as supported by the African Union and SADC .... 

__________________________________________________________________________

Betraying our people of Zimbabwe

The 14^th July 2017 was a very auspicious day for me.

It was when I met one of those incredible human beings who simply refuses to succumb to inhumanity, cruelty, persecution and to all those pernicious ways that those with power treat the powerless and ultimately render them homeless.

He is sitting next to me in this picture taken outside the Holy Trinity Church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa.
He is Bishop Paul Verryn. He is sitting next to a bronze figure of “Homeless Jesus”, lying on a nondescript bench as his home, covered only by a theadbare blanket.

Please be reminded that it is this human being that opened the doors of his Church to provide sanctuary, safety, sustenance, comfort and love … love … love to our brothers and sisters who had been rendered homeless by a diabolical oppressor in whose grip was/is our Zimbabwe.
For this Paul, it is what he insisted I call him, was vilified, threatened and persecuted by local politicians, staunch supporters of the corrupt Robert Mugabe regime of systemic terror and violence.

In my extraordinary life I have met “important” people such as Julius Nenyere, Samora Machel, Robert Mugabe, Festus Mogae, the Chief Justice of New South Wales and others. None of these meetings moved me as this meeting, because Paul is a man who is powerful of spirit, and is “extraordinary” despite being “ordinary”. He epitomizes that fundamental exhortation that He gave the world … “Love thy neighbour as yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

We spent the rest of the day listening to stories, evidence and submissions from some of the oppressed … some of the refugees … some of the tormented … some of the now “homeless” from our beloved country, Zimbabwe.

I have spent most of my life in the Courts of law and justice listening to stories of human suffering.
Here I was feeling like starting a swim in a beautiful pool, then being pulled under by some unseen force …
walking in a beautiful forest, then struggling to avoid sinking into quicksand …
looking at a beautiful painting, only to see it start to smudge and crack …
climbing up a beautiful mountain, only to feel it start to wobble and break up …
sitting down to a mouthwatering meal, only to see it turn into dog’s vomit …
holding a beautiful baby, only to see it sprout fangs and blood red eyes …
walking in a beautiful park, only to see it turn to a desert ...
floating on a cloud of happiness, only to see it turn into a bed of thorns ... 
holding a beautiful woman, only to see her turn into Satan himself ... 

I was being shaken, moved and violently disturbed at the very core of my being.

We are all aware of the diabolical machinations of the Mugabe ZANU-PF regime. But when you hear about it from the mouths of those who experienced it … it freezes your brain … chills your heart … suffocates your spirits … in indescribable ways.
Can you even start to imagine what it is like to hear an eyewitness depose to the slaughter of everyone over the age of 18, just because a plastic toy pistol was found in a village ... leaving all the children without parents???

Professors Richard Christie and Dennis Robinson … of Rhodesia – Zimbabwe.

Please SHARE ... SHARE ... SHARE ....

Today I want to honour these two great Zimbabweans who headed the Law Faculty of the University in my country of birth, Zimbabwe.
The starting point is to recognize that, after two (2) World Wars and the Holocaust, the World signed off on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”) in 1948, except for then South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The UDHR gave mankind the sacred concept of there being “Human Rights” for the first time. It was only then that the dogma of all of us being “EQUAL” was adopted.
These concepts were entrenched as being unalienable and fundamental … to replace the previous universal culture of dominance and “might is right” that had spawned much evil, including slavery.

This proposition that “all are equal” is both fundamental and resolutive. Its implications include: –
a) the law confers equal rights on every human, being whatever their race, ethnicity, tribe …
b) and conversely no person can be disadvantaged on account of such differences …
c) laws much be such as to enable humans the right and power to enforce their rights and seek redress for infringement of such rights …
d) by full seamless access to Courts and tribunals that are truly independent and empowered to enforce human rights and force redress
e) with even the lowliest of subjects able to challenge even the President of the country as an equal on any issue
f) and the judgments and orders of the independent Courts fully enforceable.

However, let us all agree that these noble aspirations of law are meaningless, wholly or in part, if ordinary human beings are unable to enforce them. They become a cruel joke if the administration of justice does not guarantee that these rights are enforceable by even the poorest of the poor.
Justice must not be a commodity that is directly accessible in proportion to one’s means.
Justice cannot be available only to the highest bidder.
Again, let us all agree that currently, in this region, justice is all too often a matter of only being available to the highest bidder. The gap between rich and poor, in this region, is just about the highest in the free world.
The legal profession locates within the rich sector and charges accordingly.
Most humans in this region cannot afford a lawyer.
It is that simple.

Professors Christie and Robins were moved to something about this. They set up a “Legal Aid Clinic”. I am so proud to have been involved.
We secured sponsored premises in Jameson Avenue (now Samora Machel Ave) in Salisbury (now Harare).
Just about all lawyers and Advocates signed up. We put them on a roster.

Poor people came to the clinic.
If they did not have means, and had a case, we allocated a law firm from the roster to act for that person free of charge.
If the other side had an Advocate, we allocated an Advocate to our client.
The reason why it was called a “Legal Aid Clinic” was because law students were involved from start to finish.
In this way law students became schooled in the practice of law and justice under supervision, mentorship and tutorship of experienced legal practitioners at every level.

We scored some very impressive victories on behalf of those who would have otherwise been denied justice.

I put this to Namibia, via a publication in "The Patriot" of that country. Apparently it has done nothing about this.

I am now putting it to South Africa.
There is no good reason why this model should not be adopted and implemented in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia … NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER!😨😨

We should actually be ashamed ... ashamed that justice is denied the poor as a matter of routine.🤢😫

How can we crow about our “World-beating Constitution” when its sacred provisions are out of reach for most?.
We need to STOP being HYPOCRITICAL.🤢🤢🤢
We do have a serious problem of justice being denied to so many because they are poor.
Denying it is crass hypocrisy … ignoring it is just as bad.

So can we now PLEASE embrace the Christie/Robinson model of equality under the law?
PLEASE!!!

I am astounded that the so-called Human Rights Commission simply ignores this fundamental defect in our system.
But, in truth, I am not at all surprised.

So PLEASE bombard the HRC with this? 😵🤢

If Satan were to appear tomorrow ….?

Humans are inherently susceptible to being fickle, selfish and stupid …
and this has been proved time and time again throughout history.

So it was the majority that screamed “we want Barabbas …” and “crucify Him … crucify Him …”.
It was all of the populace that cheered when Christians were being fed to lions in the Colosseum.

• Vladimir Putin of Russia enjoys huge popular support despite obvious indications that he is a murderous thug. 
• Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines also enjoys over 70% popularity despite that fact that he is an admitted murderous thug. 
• Adolph Hitler rose to an unquestionable level of murderous, despotic, tyrannical power. 
• So too as regards Idi Amin of Uganda who was receiving standing ovations at the United Nations just

months before he was righty deposed by outside intervention.

• Robert Mugabe was preferred over a peace-loving man of God, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, even though the people of Zimbabwe knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he was a bloodthirsty killer of note.

AS humans we are a species rightly called homo sapiens as we are gifted with the power of reason. This power of reason has given us ascendency and dominance over all other living species on the planet, even though we are at a physical disadvantage on so many counts.

So we are a pretty smart lot … that, for some capricious reason, are prone to being fickle, selfish and downright stupid from time to time.
On the hard evidence it appears clear that if the Devil were to appear tomorrow he would have any number of followers in no time at all. Proof of this is put beyond all doubt when we see the diabolical actions of the human group now known as ISIS. ISIS comprises humans who imagine that their dastardly wicked actions are actually proof of extreme devoutness. They are simply the worst example of most of us on this planet.

WHY?? Why are we prone to behaving like a rabid pack of hyenas?

I am sure that the answer is hugely complex and would occupy our best psychologists at a symposium lasting forever.
However we do have clear evidence of a principal driver of this phenomenon.

The narratives about Hitler, Amin, Mugabe and gang all have a common theme, i.e., positing other human beings as being “we want Barabbas … “and “crucify Him … crucify Him …”.

➢With Hitler it started off with the Jews being the problem. ➢With Amin it was the Asians. ➢With Mugabe it was Whites and Ndebeles. ➢With Nero it was the Christians.➢ With Rwanda genocide, it was Hutus against the Tutsis.

Once these humans are identified and posited as a problem for the dominant group our otherwise deeply embedded atavistic tendencies are aroused and assume prominence psychologically. A nativist "us and them” culture surfaces and we go into “pack mode”, with reason being the first casualty. 

Remember that we are “social animals” and all social animals are predisposed to acting as a pack. Acting as a pack is a throwback to our earliest form of existence when this was essential to our survival in a world that held so much terror as we peered at it out of our caves.

So it appears clear that there are leaders who are able to trigger this pack instinct in humans to the extent that their power of reason is submerged.

And, as said, a key to this is identifying and positing other human beings as being a problem, threat, nuisance or sub-human or a combination of one or more of these attributes. For instance, slavery was underpinned by the notion of some of us being sub-human. So too as regards the ISIS concept of others being “infidels”.

There can be no doubt that if Satan were to appear tomorrow he would have any number of followers in no time at all as Christians, in particular, would be targeted just as Jesus Chris was targeted when they screamed “we want Barabbas … … crucify Him … crucify Him …”.

So we have to conclude that leaders who advocate division, exclusion, isolationism, dominance, protectionism … and point to “others” as being a problem, threat, nuisance or sub-human … are extremely dangerous.

Such leaders, in effect, promote a kind of ideology referred to as nativist nationalism. 

Can we tick these boxes as regards a country:-
a) labeling Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers;
b) identifying Muslims as being a threat to the whole nation;
c) identifying other countries as overreaching, being unfair and cheating the country;
d) identifying even allies as cheating the country;
e) increasing the size of the already most powerful military forces;
f) having a bond with despotic, tyrannical leaders such as Putin, Duterte and Kim Jong Un.
g) positing immigrants and migrants as vermin, to be kept OUT!!!

Right now the most powerful nation on the planet has this affliction in abundance in the personage of its President, supported not only by those identified as the ALT-RIGHT but regrettably by millions of otherwise normal, sentient, reasonable folk like you and me.

Once we allow ourselves to see certain human beings as "others" we have taken the first but sure steps to evil that includes the brutalization of the apartheid regime in South Africa or Hitler's genocidal Holocaust.

Also goto --- https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208651341995371&set=a.1733027379902.91943.1665062110&type=3&theater

Hitler had his Nazism.  America now has its Trumpism.

PS:
Senator Bob Corker, a Republican, has just issued a statement lamenting the fact that the Republican Party appears to have the attributes of being a "Trump Cult".
PPS: and then we have this ---- http://time.com/5312987/jeff-sessions-separating-immigrant-families/

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I stumbled upon the concept of being "The Other" when I wrote a book about my life story.
Link === http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/The%20Other%20-%20without%20fear,%20favor%20or%20prejudice.html

Zimbabwe … Reality Check

At the time Mugabe was deposed there was much discussion as to whether or not his removal was a coup.

I was interviewed by the media sector. My stance was that his removal was not a coup as he was in complete breach of the Constitution. Having long since repudiated his sacred duties to uphold the Constitution, for the benefit of the people, his removal was indicated on the jurisprudential concept of negotorium gestor, i.e., the military acting as an agent of necessity.
I qualified this stance by stating that if it was simply a case of removing the tyrant but not the tyranny then indeed it was a coup d’état.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10213018370448353&set=a.1733027379902.91943.1665062110&type=3&theater

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-iba-1&hsimp=yhs-1&hspart=iba&p=Judge+Greenland+Zimbabwe+utube#id=2&vid=ca6ea010a070dea23360f9dba41e972b&action=click

Now that time has passed we are in a much better position to resolve the question of coup/no coup?

My view, with great respect, is that this was indeed a coup d’état … because it is now obvious that the tyrant’s co-conspirators in the awful business of oppression have no intention of ensuring that our people will be truly free to elect leaders of our choice in the oncoming elections.

There are two (2) reasons on which I base my stance.
1. Failure to reconcile the past by way of a credible Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
2. Excluding Diaspora voters from the vote.

1.       Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
There is no doubt whatsoever that our people were under oppression … wall-to-wall oppression ... exerted in any number of known and unknown ways.
The known ways include: -
a) Gukurahundi

b) Operation Murambatsvina 

c) Routine election violence and intimidation

d) Routine police brutality

e) Diabolical machinations by Mugabe’s Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), responsible for innumerable disappearances.

f) Brutalization of human beings on the basis of their ethnicity in the so-called “land reform” land grabs with thousands of innocent Zimbabweans of all races deprived of their livelihoods and homes.

g) The persecution and hounding the media, with truth being a serial casualty on all fronts.
h) … [this list is more or less endless]

These known realities, coupled with unknown realities, ensured that our people were deprived of their freedom(s) on all fronts.

Having been deprived of the freedoms they were, in effect, held hostage by the Mugabe-ZANU-PF regime who could not be effectively challenged on account of its culture of brutality.

That is the fundamental reality that must be understood in all its pernicious aspects.
Unless our people are now brought to a point where they truly accept that they are free to challenge, decide and make choices … they are NOT free.

There has to be a process in terms of which the chains of oppression that were embedded in our collective psyche are broken and removed.
Words and promises alone by members of the very same cabal/regime that enchained us can never remove those chains.
There has to be a process in terms of which members of that cabal/regime are held to full account in a way and process that provides the assurance that they are now divested of the naked power to oppress that they previously enjoyed.

That process can only be a credible Truth and Reconciliation Commission granting indemnity in exchange for the WHOLE TRUTH being divulged.
Not only would this process prove that our people are at last rid of oppression, but it would also deliver the precious commodity of closure.

Human beings who have been traumatized and lost loved ones need closure.

For instance, there are families that need closure as regards the disappearance of three members of our Coloured community at the hands of CIO.

Without a TRC our people remain psychologically captive by the ZANU-PF regime.

2.       Diaspora Vote.

An estimated 3,6 million of our people are now scattered all over the planet, having fled ZANU-PF’s reign of terror and oppression.
Leaving was not an act of desertion.
It was not an act of abandonment.
All of us in the Diaspora are, in effect, refugees.
We did not leave in order to give up, abandon, repudiate our rights and interest in our beloved homeland.
We left in order to escape being held captive by Mugabe and his ZANU-PF regime.
We still have a legitimate interest in our homeland and the fate of our kith and kin still entrapped therein.
There is no logical, moral or ethical reason to divest us of that interest by disenfranchising us.
It is blindingly obvious that the reason for this disenfranchisement is a pernicious ploy by the ZANU-PF regime to ensure that the electorate remains captive so as to ensure that its possible removal by democratic process is averted. Blocking out our people in the Diaspora provides added insurance for the ZANU-PF regime.

To simplify something that is psychologically complex -- our people suffer a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, in terms of which they "appreciate" rule by ZANU-PF as "normal", even though it was somewhat diabolical.

We all need to understand, acknowledge and respect the lesson that was Thabo Mbeki's Government of National Unity ("GNU").
The GNU was a capricious model of political expediency designed to prevent accountability and cover up diabolical wrongdoing in the past.
The outcome was continued denial of freedom with an even more emboldened cabal at the top.

3.       The way Forward

Parliament needs to meet to amend the Constitution to postpone the elections so as to ensure the implementation of 1 and 2 above, after which elections can be conducted.

4.       Comment
In the absence of the above the elections can be no more that a lottery in terms of which our people will vote under the psychological burden of carrying the effects of three decades of oppression in the hearts, minds and spirit.
Our leaders who participate in such elections will be acting irresponsibly, on account of self-interest, with a shameful disregard for the pernicious betrayal that will be at play.

5. PS: on 23 June 2018 President Emmerson Mnangagwa narrowly escapes a bomb attempt in which his two Vice Presidents are injured.
This completely vindicates what I have set out above that our people NEED RECONCILIATION with the past.
The bomb attempt is the surest proof that currently there is no such reconciliation.

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Also see ---- http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/corruption_in_zimbabwe.htm

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Please ... Please ... PLEASE circulate and share this with all political leaders and activists.

Abortion ... a black day for mankind

Ireland has just enthusiastically voted to legalize abortion.
There has been much celebration and general approval by Western media, in particular.

The thing is seen as a "victory for women" ... with the question as to over whom is this "victory being
scored as clear as mud.
It appears that women are being "victorious" over the Roman Catholic Church ... Liberals ...  and even "Neo-Liberals" ... and a host of vaguely defined "anti-feminists".

This change apparently ranks with the triumph achieved by the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragette movement that got women the right to vote.

What is being neatly brushed aside, ignored, glossed over  ... is that this is really a "victory" over human beings at their most indefensible and vulnerable stage of existence.
Woman is the "victor" and the "fetus" is the "vanquished".

Whichever which way you may want to bake it, the reality of the matter is this change gives a woman the right to extinguish human life, no more, no less ... at her sole discretion and convenience. 

Becoming pregnant is not like stubbing your toe, catching a cold or falling off a bicycle. It is not a matter of "bad luck". It involves purposeful sustained commitment to self-gratification with a reckless disregard for the consequences.
It requires very, very little to ensure that pregnancy is avoided given modern technology.

Conversely, an abortion is not akin to taking aspirin for a headache or sticking ointment and plaster on a bruise.
It involves the destruction of a human being in its early stages of development.
Everything that is needed to ensure the development of a human being is present in the "fetus" .... just as everything that is needed for the development of a human being is present in a two-year-old child.
As is the case with most murders, blood is shed.

So you irresponsibly get yourself pregnant and then kill the baby because its existence is an inconvenience to you?
That is it in a nutshell.

Yes there are situations when, because of a change in circumstances, it is no longer possible for you to guarantee the love, protection and support you responsibly consider should be in place for your infant.
The simple answer to that one is that there is no shortage of very responsible human beings that will take your child in with tears of joy.

There is nothing to celebrate here.
It is a black day for mankind.
You cannot celebrate the wholesale slaughter of human life.

What it proves is that, as a species, there is no end to our capacity for violence, depravity and self-serving conduct ... regardless of the consequences to others, the planet and its creatures.
That is why we are steadily destroying the planet and rendering other species extinct.

We don't care.
We will rationalize, obfuscate, excuse, intellectualize the most crass wrongdoing if it serves our selfish purposes.

"It is my body" I hear you say "and as a man, you have no right to preach to me".It is this claim that underpins all the justification for abortion on demand.

My answer to you is that "since you. as the mother are not protecting this human being growing inside you, who is going to do that"?

If there is a God my prayer is that He/She intervenes on behalf of these little ones as a matter of urgency.
Please .. please God visit this abomination with your righteous wrath?

Syria Air Strikes …. Supreme Buffoonery.

Yes, the allied air strikes (Britain, France and America) were indeed buffoonery because, on a simple sentient analysis of the history and facts, you have to conclude that, when all is said and done, it was worth the candle for Assad.

This is because he actually has lost very little in exchange for having used chemicals to break the back of the freedom fighters and score a decisive victory in defeating the war for liberation.  The “rebels” surrendered within six (6) hours of Assad’s diabolical chemical strike.

Now losing “some” chemical storage sites is a price that he would gladly pay if the clock were reversed. His status as the winner in the war remains completely secure.

You see the primary reason/justification for these allied air strikes is “deterrence”, i.e., it is claimed, with much fanfare, that Assad now stands “deterred” from using chemical weapons again.

It is a sick joke, a VERY sick joke.
The sickness started with Donald Trump’s strike on an unoccupied airstrip, using all of 85 cruise missiles, the last time Assad did this. That was the start of crass buffoonery.

As predicted by most sentient observers, it did not deter Assad from doing it again, if he needed to in order to win. So, he did it again.

Now he does not have to do it again … because he has won.
So, these allied airstrikes have changed nothing, nothing whatsoever.
They are no more, no less what is known in jurisprudence as a brutum fulmen, a “useless thunderbolt” … i.e., high class buffoonery … obscene tokenism.

What would have been meaningful indeed would have been to take out Assad’s means of delivery, i.e., airstrips, aircraft and aviation fuel.
This would have been simple enough. There are just six (6) such sites. All could have been taken out in a matter of hours with no risk to civilians.

As it so happens, in this buffoonery equation, it was not possible for the allies to take out all his chemical weapons storage sites as some are too close to civilian habitation … yet we have flag waving and crowing about the strikes with the Trump trumpeting “Mission Accomplished”.

It was no more, no less, “Pantomime Accomplished”.
It has achieved nothing whatsoever.

Here we see the supreme arrogance, dishonesty and duplicity of governments.
There was never any intention to do anything meaningful about Assad. That is why President Obama, of all leaders, declined to do anything even after Assad crossed the so-called “red line” the first time.

Hypocrisy was embedded with leaders routinely referencing Obama as a "wussy" whereas they all know that they would have done the same.
The last time Assad committed this type of genocide the British Parliament voted to do nothing.Then citizen Trump repeatedly exhorted then President Obama to leave Asad alone.

The reason why the free world will do nothing about Assad is simple. There is no readily identifiable alternative to Assad as Syria is made up of a huge mishmash of tribes and ethnic groups and God alone knows what would happen if Assad were removed. 

If Assad were to lauch another chemical attack tomorrow what will these bright sparks do??? What will they do?
What they will do is absolutely predictable.
They will froth at the mouth, have hissy fits, and fanny wobbles, bellow, scream and grunt before launching another meaningless "attack" that will change nothing.

The understandable perception of our leaders, in the free world, is that Assad’s removal will result in an even more humungous headache than Iraq and Lybia.
This has always been the big "elephant in the room" for free world leaders.

Now why do they not just say so, instead of all this buffoonery?

It is all hypocrisy.
It is all grandstanding.
It is all showboating.

In a nutshell: -
To our leaders removing despotic tyrants like Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti of Iraq, Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi of Lybia, and Bashar Hafez al-Assad of Syria, in the course of freeing human being, leads to "political instability".
Political Stability is more precious than the chance of freedom.