Ultra-Authority Over Generations
|
|
Text and Artwork:
|
Generational aspects of ultra-authority and extreme manipulation are actually a very complicated mass of subjects of their own. The following is not, in any way, a full discussion of the problems encountered, but rather simply a quick introduction to some of the problems involved. Ultra-authority (extreme manipulation) can have long-term and long-range effects. These effects can still be observed, generations later, in cultures and countries. The Holocaust of the mid-20th century is only one such instance in which the effects linger through generations...both in the cultures of those held within the ultra-authority and those who were outside victims of the ultra-authority. Another, even more long-term example, can be seen in the continuing unrest in the Balkans. The contemporary clashes between the various ethnic groups in that area are the direct, albeit temporally distant, result of two ancient ultra-authoritarian systems clashing over adherents, resources and land beginning nearly a thousand years ago. Many ultra-authorities exist long enough that there are generations within families held by the manipulator or their descendants in power. Such was the case, for example, with Jim Jones and his group (described in People Who Play God). In the book I have already addressed some of the issues which confront a child as they grow up within such an ultra-authoritarian system, but there are other issues, too. People who grow up in an ultra-authority are fed the concepts and societal norms of that group as a matter of course. And just as any child in whatever culture they are a part of, the children within an ultra-authority swallow concepts, mental frameworks and attitudes whole. This makes it horrendously difficult for those people to truly re-formulate their own thoughts, ideas and frameworks; the foundations simply go down so terribly deep. It also can cause rifts between those who have actually experienced the same extreme manipulation. For example, let's say that the manipulator stated in their ideology that only youth was "good" or "pure". Those who are born within the group, and who then grow up there, may almost be treated as deities as newborns or young children. This plants certain ideas and expectations in the child's psyche... They will almost certain carry an attitude of being truly "god's gift" for their entire lifetime (if that idea isn't forced out of them later by the manipulator or they finally take themselves in hand in regards to that idea after they have left the manipulator). If a person grew up in that scenario, they will see themselves as better than anyone older themselves, simply because they are younger. If they should eventually disafiliate from the ultra-authority, they will still have a tendency to look down on anyone older. And even rather nastier, they may blame all woes & assign all responsibility for their own experiences within the ultra-authority on their parents, who were themselves victims of the same manipulation, rather than look at the ultra-authoritarian leadership itself. This seems to occur even when such attitudes of "Youth = Good" do not exist; it appears that it is easier and less threatening for them to blame people they know rather than the system or leadership of the group, even after they have left the group. Of course, it has historically been much easier for a victim of ultra-authority to lay blame rather than to actually heal their own damaged selves...the information simply had not been there for understanding to be able to be reached. Unfortunately, however, it seems that such 'blame-games' are still occurring. But what if the person who grew up in the ultra-authority never questions it? Never leaves it? Here you have a manipulative system that can continue even after the death of the original manipulator. Those people who had reached the consolidation phase were already acting on the leader's behalf. Now that will simply encompass more territory. In this way, many ultra-authorities have managed to exist for extended lengths of time... a few have even survived for hundreds of years.
Extreme manipulation is not new. It is not even uncommon. And the effects can be felt
echoing through time and through the generations.
|