Conformity, Regulation and FREEDOM
by lex Friday, Jun 28 2019, 11:44pm
international /
prose /
post
As a tertiary student some decades past I was force fed Foucault . After reading his texts it became evident that all were the result of Foucault's personal dilemmas as a homosexual in what was then conservative ruled society and what he had been subjected to in order to 'cure' his/that condition, 'illness' of homosexuality; I am able to make light of it today but for Foucault, as regulated victim, it was traumatic, as is easily determined from his textual productions. Foucault's works are useful nevertheless, as they directly and indirectly outline society's regulatory forces, you see, it's not just the police and military, which initially come to mind as social regulators, its medicos.
Consider how the Soviets utilised doctors to 'diagnose' and then contain dissidents, simply categorise them as 'sick' and in need of treatment (regulation) and that's almost the end of them stirring the status quo. Europe in a more civilised, tame manner did precisely the same, specialist doctors to this day overrule decisions made by the judiciary/courts – Oh no, he/she did not commit murder as they were suffering a mental illness at the time, and the courts stand helpless if they cannot produce contrary MEDICAL opinions but the battle here and always is, between paid medicos working in the interests of any party that PAYS for their services, such is the inherent dis-integrity of that profession. Here in Australia a number of savvy white-collar criminals were/are able to avoid periodic detention by simply producing medical certificates which the jails did not question, at least at the time.
So it's little wonder that Foucault had a ferocious, though expressed academically, dislike/attitude to jails, sanitariums, medicos, the police and all other forms of social regulation as he had been abused and traumatised by these institutions/regulatory forces. Nevertheless, not once did Foucault offer any alternative solutions, a MASSIVE cop out in my view. If you don't like and criticise a system you are automatically obliged to offer alternatives (no one likes a winger) however, Foucault did not, he seemed perfectly content to gripe (academically) and get his own back only. In that sense he lost me and many others; O sure, I am fully aware of the excuse to which academics always resort, 'that is not his job,' he's a theorist – easy for academics to say in their insular world of theories and conjecture but for the rest of us living in REAL worlds we want alternatives and ANSWERS.
For example, Karl Marx, who I personally loath as I detest ALL forms of materialist philosophies, not only criticised capitalism and feudalism but he offered 'socialism/commune-ism' as an alternative system though the form he offered was entirely impractical for large societies, though not for Jewish tribes roaming deserts, no doubt the source of Marx's views; furthermore, history has proven that Marx's system fails in its purest form as Marx completely ignored human nature, so much for all theories!
The closest one gets to a practical socialist solution today is the socialism practiced by China's elites and the West's mega-wealthy banking elites/families; indeed these elites practice real socialism but for themselves, not for the people, a humorous irony in my view.
And so we are all faced today with regulatory systems in large societies and I need not explain why all these differing societies have regulatory institutions.
Now to address those regulatory institutions, the foremost of which WAS religion, a genius solution as it is highly cost effective. Ancient Rome faced with bankruptcy implemented State religion, as it had determined from the Jews that an ideology, 'police in the head, self-regulation' is far more efficient than real police/military managing very large groups of humans, all one need do is inculcate a policing ideology in the very young and most managerial problems are solved at minimal cost. This form of social regulation worked a treat, we continue to have the powerful 'Roman' Catholic church and all its Protestant splinter groups with us today, though they war with each other as they do with other foreign religions of the world.
My subversive alternative solution is simple and effective if it is applied, abandon ALL belief systems including Marxism and others, and release yourselves from imposed, by self or otherwise, psychological chains, which you clearly do not need in order to survive effectively, as they are impositions on the freedom of ALL people which are SUBJECT to the self-serving elite interests that impose these beliefs, plain to see. Humans do NOT need belief systems to survive, they only need knowledge and skill, in fact beliefs are a hindrance to survival as they blind people to simple, obvious realities and solutions.
Now you may imagine that police and other external forms of regulation are more problematic to deal with, they are not, as it is the exact same inculcation process that is used to allow police and the military to exercise power over individuals, we believe they have justifiable authority over us, which belief of course prevents questioning and dissent, whereas it is clear they have NO real justifiable authority, police were first created as a private entity by wealthy elite interests to protect them and their wealth from the hordes, which problem is solved by eliminating wealth disparities, it stands to reason that no one person should get a larger portion of the available pie, there is absolutely no convincing argument why any one person should have more than another, I am talking EQUALITY here, as it is INequality that BREEDS crime and the need for police.
So there you have it, SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE solutions for simple problems in a world of thieves and exploiters. And need I remind YOU that all large societies are at the whim of the MAJORITY, so in whose interests are we always divided by various beliefs, religious and political, surely you should know, if not read this again until the penny drops. You are indeed free if you choose to be – what a wonderful world!
[Share around.]
<< back to stories
|