Groups

30 Aug 2001

I've been thinking about the dynamic which takes place within and between groups.

When two groups interact, do they not do so in accordance with each group's nature?

Some examples:

European colonizers and the Indigenous American people.
European Christians and Middle Eastern Muslims.
European Culture and African Culture.
Microsoft "Proprietary Software Culture" and IBM "Open Source" Culture.

What happens when groups compete for a limited resource, such as land? Is the winner of the resource doing evil?

Human history seems to of been pretty Darwinian.

Is "survival of the fittest" itself evil, or is naturally operating on all planes of existence as the human race evolves and learns to master the more subtle levels of reality?

Individuals fight for rights to property, health, mental and emotional well-being, and religious freedom.

Tribes fight for land and for the rights of their tribe to the above. Nations fight for resources and territory (ex: The Gulf War) Corporations fight for Cyperspace territory (The dot.com land rush)

The nature of Groups is to expand, filling the space within the box with the substance of themselves, until they encounter another group doing the same thing. What happens at the group-to-group interface in such a collision?

One group pushes the other back.
One group absorbs the other.
One group ruptures and disperses the other.
The groups establish a dynamic-equilibrium between each other.

None of the above dynamics are good, nor are they evil (IMO). They simply "are", as no group is any "better" than another group. The differences between groups lie in their ability to adapt to and master their environment. This fact gives the victor nothing to crow about, but at the same time, the vanquished have no claim to the moral high ground either.

These dynamics occur without judgement. However, what often happens is that a group will promote (superficial) judgement (of another group) in order to maintain it's internal expansive energy. This is where the "evil" can creep in (IMO):

Superficial observation and hasty generalization promoted for the purpose of reproduction (and expansion) of the group - The reproductive energy being harnessed by the Self (via lies and falsehood) for the purpose of perpetuating its current image of itself (K15). The feminine principle kept prostitute in the perpetuation of images being fed to it.

That is the evil in racism. The perpetuation of a false image of man (the inverted pentagram) through the use of superficial observation and generalization. Why? It perpetuates the group's expansion of it's separatist values /images /world-view. In other words, reproduction!

The Devil (K15) is the binding of spirit into form. The form is a group's physical, mental, and emotional body - and a group's desire is to perpetuate itself.

Crudely put, racism is an example of the use of lies and false imagery in order to stimulate the reproductive centers of a group and keep it fertile and expansive in respect to another group. (sounds a lot like pornography).

European Culture needed a cheap and abundant labor force to keep up it's expansion and development of the New World.

American settlers needed a stereotypical view of the American Indian in order to keep up its expansive ideas about the country (ie. Manifest Destiny).

And on and on it goes.....

====Devil's Peak====
Lies giving rise to wood
the false tower grows taller
until struck by lightning.
Great balls of fire!
After the ashes,
there appears an opportunity to learn.
Under the midnight moon
a new way of living begins to grow.
The Sun dawns over a new day.