He has confined Dr. Besigye in the prison of his home—all out of fear of what the so-called “walk-to-work” might unleash: the pent-up frustrations of millions. He lectured the diplomatic corps on the history of Uganda of his conjuring. He threatened changing the constitution so that peaceful demonstrators could be denied bail alongside murderers and child molesters. Knowing the power of incumbency with unlimited access to state resources, he purchased changing the constitution for his effective life presidency. Idi Amin was cruder by declaring himself so. The so-called press freedom is but a sham: it is encumbered with thorns of gags. Criticize the Big Man to your peril of disturbing the peace. Mention the fact of the generals (the de facto powers behind the throne) being stacked with his homeboys and you will be slapped with promoting sectarianism.
At the advent of his “liberating” the country, he proclaimed bringing fundamental change. A change indeed! But what kind of change was heralded?
He scoffed at African Big Men who overstayed in power. Now we have voodoo math where twenty five years is equivalent to five years and counting for the transformation of Uganda society—a task that he alone can do.
The Marxist-Socialist has turned into a pernicious wild-wild west free marketer who has seen vast concentrations and controls of wealth by a few who must of necessity stroke his ego and be loyal to his authoritarian rule. He has shifted society’s responsibility to the individual on such cardinal issues as health and road safety.
The blokes that lost to him did “panda gari,” which, while obnoxious, does not compare to the elaborate maintaining of order by fear, intimidations and blind obedience.
The judiciary and parliament have largely wimped out, allowing concentrations of powers in the executive with the attendant coercive instruments of the military and the police. Balance of power, an anti-dote against excesses, is but wishful thinking in the realm.
When all have come to pass, the question to be asked is: What did the revolutionary Museveni mean when he declared a “fundamental change”? Where we listening through different world-views?
Classic social change has always been about the “…material (who controls what wealth), institutional (who runs what powerful institutions) and political (who wins elections [or murders his way to power])”
If politics is about economics, power and social organization, then –for better or worse—Museveni has delivered as promised. How anybody sees or experiences the change depends on how one thinks. So then we could add the mind as a factor in politics. (Lakoff, ’08).
Let us take the case of the Acoli who have been brutalized and humiliated by the NRM under this man. Acoli is now sending more NRM MPs to parliament than the opposition parties combined. The Baganda, whose allegiance to the monarchy, in part, fueled the five-year brutal bush war, are the linchpin to the NRM hegemony even as the monarchy is humiliated in broad daylight.
What is going on here? A fact of populations voting against their supposed self-interests is not unique to Uganda. In the US of A, for example, the Republican Party machines have mesmerized poor whites to a trance of supporting agendas that protect the interests of the rich. As a consequence, in part, the rich get richer while the incomes of the relative poor (that include millions of whites) have stagnated for years even as the capitalist machinery bamboozles them to buy more and more stuff.
To get a clue on this phenomenon we have to understand that human decisions are largely beyond conscious reason. Adept mind assassins know this. So they sneak in messages via the cognitive unconscious, unbeknownst to the people of interest. The unconscious is responsible for ninety plus percent of what we are all about. Those who know it use it to conquer themselves and the world.
Therefore, if Museveni’s “fundamental change” is not what some of us expected and wanted, we have to be creative in gaining access to the population’s mind, hearts and actions through enchantment as Guy Kawasaki would say in his Enchantment book. It is a Herculean task against powerful and motivated dark forces flushed with relatively overwhelming resources. It is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. There is no compromising because the world-view of this regime is self-perpetuation. It is a regime that inherently and fundamentally totalitarian and undemocratic in its sinews. Its expertise is the immoral act of camouflaging true intentions and duping gullible people “…who don’t have the ability to discern the truth or what is best for them…” (Kawasaki, ’11).
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
The Strauss-Khan Syndrome
Evolutionary processes took eons to come up with a rational civilized up-right walking human. Through cataclysmic weather changes, pandemic diseases, gene mutations, adaptations, and eventual bottle-neck phenomena, about two hundred thousand years ago modern man emerged—complete with a central control systems that regulated the internal working systems and response to external stimuli. While this man could make tools, it was only forty thousand years ago that his tools became more complex as he began to associate with his neighbors. The dawn of human civilization had arrived, and by ten thousand years ago began the ascent to the present days. Thanks to the Holocene period of relative climatic calm.
If we take the premise that all sentient beings came from the same source, human beings should have similar basic mechanisms for regulating our activities, such as internal workings, desire for protection from danger, and desire for feeding and replicating. These basic qualities took millions of years to encode into our genetic make up. What happened forty thousand years ago was a fortuitous change (mutation) that happened only to the Homo sapiens. This brought about self-awareness and a sense of reading others and relating, and eventually to sound-making that evolved into systematic language.
We now know that the basic coding relate to lower parts of the brain, and we share that with other sentient beings. This is the seat of survival and self-perpetuation—the home of instincts. The upper part is the seat of reason that builds cathedrals, high-speed trains, civilizations, or reflects before acting.
Now, in a clutch of civilization versus instincts, which would win? The former has been around for about forty thousand years. The latter has been refined for millions of years. If experience counts, you do the math. The answer can come by way of examples. The president of the most powerful nation in the present world dips a cigar inside a student intern working for him. Is this sexual depravity, or having been a victim of an ambush by a force greater than his reputed intellect? An eloquent governor, who shook up Wall Street’s greedy titans and is destined for the White House, spends thousands on escort service, aka, hooker service. Is this stupidity or what? A Bible-Belt preacher man gets hooked on the inside rear end of male orifices. Then we have priests who like boys a little too much. What’s up with that?
And, of course, we have the story of the day: Strauss-Khan, the masterful IMF managing director, who is built like a Spanish fighting bull. He is the man who would be King of France. Now, his chances are dashed to ashes, and we scratch our heads.
“There, but for the grace of God, goes I,” the man said. And we should join in chorus if we are wise.
The same heuristic tools we often use for learning and making quick decisions, sometimes ambush us to our detriment. As the upper brain function is crowded out, we cut to the chase: reach for the jugular; save a child from danger, oblivious to our own safety; or go for the cunt or die.
The top dogs whose dick-brains take over are not doing these things because of power as some women think. These testosterone-laden executives are often sharp and witty, caring family men who are men’s men. May be in the scramble to reach the mountain top they forgot to mindfully throw a lasso and tame the beast, which is at the same time a source of their effectiveness.
If we take the premise that all sentient beings came from the same source, human beings should have similar basic mechanisms for regulating our activities, such as internal workings, desire for protection from danger, and desire for feeding and replicating. These basic qualities took millions of years to encode into our genetic make up. What happened forty thousand years ago was a fortuitous change (mutation) that happened only to the Homo sapiens. This brought about self-awareness and a sense of reading others and relating, and eventually to sound-making that evolved into systematic language.
We now know that the basic coding relate to lower parts of the brain, and we share that with other sentient beings. This is the seat of survival and self-perpetuation—the home of instincts. The upper part is the seat of reason that builds cathedrals, high-speed trains, civilizations, or reflects before acting.
Now, in a clutch of civilization versus instincts, which would win? The former has been around for about forty thousand years. The latter has been refined for millions of years. If experience counts, you do the math. The answer can come by way of examples. The president of the most powerful nation in the present world dips a cigar inside a student intern working for him. Is this sexual depravity, or having been a victim of an ambush by a force greater than his reputed intellect? An eloquent governor, who shook up Wall Street’s greedy titans and is destined for the White House, spends thousands on escort service, aka, hooker service. Is this stupidity or what? A Bible-Belt preacher man gets hooked on the inside rear end of male orifices. Then we have priests who like boys a little too much. What’s up with that?
And, of course, we have the story of the day: Strauss-Khan, the masterful IMF managing director, who is built like a Spanish fighting bull. He is the man who would be King of France. Now, his chances are dashed to ashes, and we scratch our heads.
“There, but for the grace of God, goes I,” the man said. And we should join in chorus if we are wise.
The same heuristic tools we often use for learning and making quick decisions, sometimes ambush us to our detriment. As the upper brain function is crowded out, we cut to the chase: reach for the jugular; save a child from danger, oblivious to our own safety; or go for the cunt or die.
The top dogs whose dick-brains take over are not doing these things because of power as some women think. These testosterone-laden executives are often sharp and witty, caring family men who are men’s men. May be in the scramble to reach the mountain top they forgot to mindfully throw a lasso and tame the beast, which is at the same time a source of their effectiveness.
Friday, May 13, 2011
To Each His Own
1. So long as the US gub’ment ain’t runnin’ a pussy deficit—me, personally, really don’t give a shit.—A character in Redbone
2. Don’t listen to everything people say. You might hear your servant insulting you.—Ecclesiastus 1:27
3. Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek film:
--Life is trouble, only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and look for trouble.
--I have got to go fast. You know, they say that age kills the fire inside of a man, that he hears death coming. He opens the door and says:
“Come in, Give me rest.”
That is a pack of old damn lies. I have got enough fire in me to devour the world. So…I fight.
--God has a very big heart, but there is one sin he will not forgive: If a woman calls a man to her bed, and he will not go.
--A man needs a little madness or else he will never dare cut the rope and be free.
4. Life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backwards—Soren Kiekergaard
5. Buddha: I am awake.
6. Rene Descartes: Cogito, ergo sum---outdated!
7. T pray is to ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy --Ambrose Bierce—bravo!
8. I laugh when I hear the fish in the sea are thirsty—Kabir
9. Napoleon: To get power you need to display absolute pettiness. To exercise power you need to exercise greatness. Such pettiness and such greatness are rarely found in one person.—I agree
10. When I ask God, God is silent. Why then do I try to explain God's existence when it is shrouded in mistery?-- Anon
2. Don’t listen to everything people say. You might hear your servant insulting you.—Ecclesiastus 1:27
3. Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek film:
--Life is trouble, only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and look for trouble.
--I have got to go fast. You know, they say that age kills the fire inside of a man, that he hears death coming. He opens the door and says:
“Come in, Give me rest.”
That is a pack of old damn lies. I have got enough fire in me to devour the world. So…I fight.
--God has a very big heart, but there is one sin he will not forgive: If a woman calls a man to her bed, and he will not go.
--A man needs a little madness or else he will never dare cut the rope and be free.
4. Life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backwards—Soren Kiekergaard
5. Buddha: I am awake.
6. Rene Descartes: Cogito, ergo sum---outdated!
7. T pray is to ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy --Ambrose Bierce—bravo!
8. I laugh when I hear the fish in the sea are thirsty—Kabir
9. Napoleon: To get power you need to display absolute pettiness. To exercise power you need to exercise greatness. Such pettiness and such greatness are rarely found in one person.—I agree
10. When I ask God, God is silent. Why then do I try to explain God's existence when it is shrouded in mistery?-- Anon
Friday, May 6, 2011
The Science of Being a King of Kings
So you thought Mesmer Musava of the Magic Kingdom of Hugadia had a copyright to the title of “King of Kings.” Think again; apparently his handlers forgot to register the title for the exclusive use of the Master. Anybody—a business owner, a boss, husband, a policeman, a military man, a school teacher or a common village bully—may appropriate the title and put it to good use à la Masava.
Gleaned from psychology, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and social sciences, here are some pointers that are guaranteed to make you a king of kings of your defined fiefdom.
1. Make sure you pick the lottery number that lands you into some form of dysfunctional family circumstances. This is not as bad as it sounds. It gives you an instinctual ability to prove something since you might have had to fend for yourself when your contemporaries were frolicking with girls.
2. Since you had to fend for yourself or you might have been sent off to stay with some people with less genetic sympathy to you, you learned early that, beyond the facades, darkness lies in the hearts of men. This is very important if you are to maintain your omnipotent status as you can see through people even before they know their feelings.
3. You have learned that the cave instinct of fear still rules large in the 21st century, even when there are no more lions likely to drag you out of your pad. From fear emanates hatred, greed and delusion. Such knowledge makes you work your fellow man like a yoyo. You are the puppet master: you can make lapdogs of grown men, young men can fall over swords to ingratiate you, or your enemies are forced to run around deliriously like rabid dogs.
4. A true king of kings does not admit to mistakes—he is infallible like the Pope. Everything that goes wrong is the fault of your detractors. Everything that turns out right is because of your eminence.
5. Have some posse possessed with greed (a fear from wants) who can do whatever they want. They can make voodoo financial deals with public resources with no consequences. This way their allegiance is sealed lest you pull the rug under them.
6. Above all, be a jerk. A jerk does not accept the cosmic phenomena of impermanence and change: the weather changes; seasons change; there is day, there is night; there is birth, growth and death; fortunes are won, fortunes are lost; you name it, it has come and it has gone.
7. You should despise personal power gained by ease and generosity of heart. Instead you grasp and cling to power.
8. You should be able to operate from a hidden agenda, while coyly creating a different impression, thereby, effectively lying to engorge yourself with power.
So, if you are blessed with or can learn the above traits, you have the requisites to impose your will on others. You can become the center of gravity. The sun rises and falls on you. When you are angry, people cringe. It is your way or the high road ‘cause you are the kings of kings.
Gleaned from psychology, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and social sciences, here are some pointers that are guaranteed to make you a king of kings of your defined fiefdom.
1. Make sure you pick the lottery number that lands you into some form of dysfunctional family circumstances. This is not as bad as it sounds. It gives you an instinctual ability to prove something since you might have had to fend for yourself when your contemporaries were frolicking with girls.
2. Since you had to fend for yourself or you might have been sent off to stay with some people with less genetic sympathy to you, you learned early that, beyond the facades, darkness lies in the hearts of men. This is very important if you are to maintain your omnipotent status as you can see through people even before they know their feelings.
3. You have learned that the cave instinct of fear still rules large in the 21st century, even when there are no more lions likely to drag you out of your pad. From fear emanates hatred, greed and delusion. Such knowledge makes you work your fellow man like a yoyo. You are the puppet master: you can make lapdogs of grown men, young men can fall over swords to ingratiate you, or your enemies are forced to run around deliriously like rabid dogs.
4. A true king of kings does not admit to mistakes—he is infallible like the Pope. Everything that goes wrong is the fault of your detractors. Everything that turns out right is because of your eminence.
5. Have some posse possessed with greed (a fear from wants) who can do whatever they want. They can make voodoo financial deals with public resources with no consequences. This way their allegiance is sealed lest you pull the rug under them.
6. Above all, be a jerk. A jerk does not accept the cosmic phenomena of impermanence and change: the weather changes; seasons change; there is day, there is night; there is birth, growth and death; fortunes are won, fortunes are lost; you name it, it has come and it has gone.
7. You should despise personal power gained by ease and generosity of heart. Instead you grasp and cling to power.
8. You should be able to operate from a hidden agenda, while coyly creating a different impression, thereby, effectively lying to engorge yourself with power.
So, if you are blessed with or can learn the above traits, you have the requisites to impose your will on others. You can become the center of gravity. The sun rises and falls on you. When you are angry, people cringe. It is your way or the high road ‘cause you are the kings of kings.
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