Power Matrices- The Urge of The Silverback and Tony Blair

Why do we do it?
Power.

After all, it's one of the recurring themes of this blog, the perpetual corruption of human social systems, the perversion of progressive aims to create power matrices.

And yes, you could say it's a dominating theme in my mind.

I think the power nerve is the key to everything, it is the underlying flaw in human society, so powerful because it lies in the very instincts of the species. Each one of us, is power hungry.

Stark comment? Perhaps. But we first we need to look at what power is.
Power is energy. We talk of coal power, solar power, nuclear power, and we see these as good things- energy doing something.

Power really means impact.

We are social animals. The instincts of other apes are ours. But we overlook sometimes, that in many ways they are HEIGHTENED. As a species we have evolved to live collectively, way beyond the social patterns of our fellow apes. Every social instinct an ape has, is magnified in man.

We need to groom and be groomed so much more.
And the urge of the Silverback is stronger within us.

What is the urge of the Silverback?

It's very simple. It's basic survival. By effective use of social manipulation, by imposing his will on each individual separately, the Silverback creates a defence network around him suppoting his own existence. Each individual fears the Silverback so much so, they don't stop to think that collectively they can overpower him.

Creating social networks is a way of life, for all of us. We all like a bit of favorable grooming, a pat on the head, a cuddle. Our instincts are satisfied by feeling many and frequent connections.

For most of us, that is achieved as it should be, by seeing positive results.
But the need to be groomed can so easily become the urge of the Silverback. One sees it at a fairly routine level, even in social groups. Don't we all know someone who everyone else in the groups laughs WITH, but never AT, has a little coterie of hangers on, all of whom would give him a good kick, if he ever fell into the mud?

But of course, society produces more subtle Silverbacks. It took me really till my mid twenties to really come to terms with just how much we as individuals can abuse our own character facets, to effectively impose ourselves on others.

Because it's so easily done, if you have a certain type of character. And of course, when we do it, we're often not conscious of what we are doing and why. The REAL motivation.

The dark urge of the Silverback. Orwell knew what it was. The desire to make someone do something that they WOULDN'T do, unless you compelled them to.
The need to test that power nerve and check it's still there.

The point about button pressing, is that it isn't always naked use of power. A certain amount of it is necessary for society to function- although the danger is always when the users don't really stop to think what it is they are doing.

Because yes, power corrupts. But on a fairly rudimentary level, some people are born with it. And I don't mean hereditary Sultans, necessarily. I mean that it's taken me a long time to realise that if you're intelligent and a good communicator and don't look like a mis-shapen dwarf, you actually do have power, and it's very easy to abuse- because you are just doing what comes naturally, and you aren't stopping to think.

This country is starting to wake up now to the fact that it has been the victim of a con trick.



What was Blair, if not the charismatic con man?

Goodbye Boom and Bust?
'Hey Gordon, here's the deal- I'll fly on the back of the ten year Boom, you can have the Bust'.

Tony Blair, magificent in his shiny, caring, grin.
Tony Blair, with the power lust of a Caesar.
Tony Blair, the man who made nothing look like something for so long.

And his legacy? What will it be?

I think it begins with 'I'...

But the Power matrix has become more obvious- not just here, but everywhere. Of course it has, it's failing. The system is teetering, the economy that demands eternal growth has reached it's doomsday.

And adding Satan himself to the list of terror threats isn't going to change anything.

So the state becomes more blatant in it's repression. It tells us it protects us from ourselves, as it pushes down on us.

Was the Soviet Union a dictatorship because there was only one party permitted, or because the citizens could be dragged away to the Gulag, without a fair trial?

The power matrix has to try justify itself. The Silverbacks who decide what we should do to earn our food will press that nerve as hard as they can now. Because it's all going wrong. They can't deliver.
They can't guarantee anything to us any more.

They do what they do, because it's human nature.

The urge of the Silverback.