Rulers and Ruling
Ruling is trespassing on the individual's freedom, yet it is made out by authorities that ruling is essential for peace in society. It would immediately be asked - wouldn't the country go into chaos if people are not ruled. I would say it depends on what is meant by 'ruling'. For, ruling is not the enforcement of the rules and laws of justice. When people follow all the rules and laws laid out according to the needs of justice, there will be proper governance of society. Ruling happens when some people are forced to obey others - not when people obey or are made to obey accepted rules and laws of justice. An act of justice is a movement towards equality and reduction in the gradient of power in society. Any action that provides land, wages, rights and education to human beings who are deprived of them and who suffer because of the deprivation is justice.
In this context, it is useful to classify rulers into four types - the generals, the politicians, the priests and the plutocrats. In a nutshell, the business of these four types of rulers seems to be to enslave people and make them work for them while they accumulate the wealth and enjoy the privileges of power. We can't see any nobility, wisdom or loftiness of intent here. All types of ruling seem to be motivated by personal lust for power and wealth.
As a single individual you can only produce a small amount of wealth. The only way an individual can amass more wealth would be to make others work for him on wages or for nothing while he takes possession of the wealth produced. For this, one has to rule others. Ruling of humans over humans is enabled through one of the following: physical might (military generals and underworld dons), legislation and control of bureaucracy (politicians), identity hysteria (nationalists and religious leaders) and money power (businessmen or plutocrats).
Physical might is the original method of ruling another. It is what the bully or the don does. They frighten people with physical injury, rob them and enslave them. The primitive rulers in the stone age may have done this and the underworld dons who rule parts of the Indian metros in India still do this. So do some regimes supported by a thin veneer of ideology - such as North Korea, Communist China and Russia at the time of Stalin.
Legislation is where laws are created that make people pass the bulk of their wealth through taxation to the rulers. The law enforcing agencies that the rulers control - police and the legal system - are used to effect this transfer.
Identity hysteria is where people lose their minds to identities - national or religious and become loyal and militant slaves of the nationalistic and religious leaders. They are drawn into a frenzy of pride and aggression by providing them with an identity of belonging to a nation or a religion. Nation and religion were invented by rulers for this purpose.
Finally there is rule through money power - plutocracy. It happens through the stock market and supported by the trade laws and banks. The rich rule the poor. The poor, for survival, have no option but to part of the rich man's money-making industries. It is the most modern form of slavery and also the most rampant in the world today. Plutocracy doesn't really recognize national boundaries. It is mostly global in nature. Rich people can easily transcend the conventional restrictions of travel and doing business due to the separation of the world into different nations. The rich make wealth at the expense of the poor - and most of the poor are in the poorer countries of the world such as South Asia and Africa. Now China is making money by selling mobile phones and computers to the Indian people. The USA, Russia, China, France and Britain make an awful lot of money by selling weapons to India and other countries and these are bought with the money that the people in these countries pay through taxes. Therefore the people in poor countries support the weapons industry of rich countries in a big way. The rich buy politicians, religious leaders and the military generals and therefore ultimately the whole world becomes ruled by the rich.
Now what are we do to about all these? Can we stop exploitation and ruling and implement governance through justice? This is not possible so long as we continue to see these ruling ideologies and methods as proper and noble. The real divide of power in the world today is not between different nations, political parties or religions. The real divide is between the common people and the rulers. People lose individual freedom and rights through forced attribution of identities of nationality, religion and party by those who want to rule them. People are a biological group bounded by the common interests of food and water, housing, clothing, facilities for education, proper healthcare, sanitation and pollution-free environment. These needs are denied by rulers at present and in the past - for their private ends. What people need is good environment, optimal wages for their labor and a fair share of the earth's arable land to cultivate and grow food from. They don't need pride in any identity - of nationality, religion or party - to live and to be happy. These are the rulers' needs by which they exploit people as 'human resources' to make wealth for themselves.
In this context, it is useful to classify rulers into four types - the generals, the politicians, the priests and the plutocrats. In a nutshell, the business of these four types of rulers seems to be to enslave people and make them work for them while they accumulate the wealth and enjoy the privileges of power. We can't see any nobility, wisdom or loftiness of intent here. All types of ruling seem to be motivated by personal lust for power and wealth.
As a single individual you can only produce a small amount of wealth. The only way an individual can amass more wealth would be to make others work for him on wages or for nothing while he takes possession of the wealth produced. For this, one has to rule others. Ruling of humans over humans is enabled through one of the following: physical might (military generals and underworld dons), legislation and control of bureaucracy (politicians), identity hysteria (nationalists and religious leaders) and money power (businessmen or plutocrats).
Physical might is the original method of ruling another. It is what the bully or the don does. They frighten people with physical injury, rob them and enslave them. The primitive rulers in the stone age may have done this and the underworld dons who rule parts of the Indian metros in India still do this. So do some regimes supported by a thin veneer of ideology - such as North Korea, Communist China and Russia at the time of Stalin.
Legislation is where laws are created that make people pass the bulk of their wealth through taxation to the rulers. The law enforcing agencies that the rulers control - police and the legal system - are used to effect this transfer.
Identity hysteria is where people lose their minds to identities - national or religious and become loyal and militant slaves of the nationalistic and religious leaders. They are drawn into a frenzy of pride and aggression by providing them with an identity of belonging to a nation or a religion. Nation and religion were invented by rulers for this purpose.
Finally there is rule through money power - plutocracy. It happens through the stock market and supported by the trade laws and banks. The rich rule the poor. The poor, for survival, have no option but to part of the rich man's money-making industries. It is the most modern form of slavery and also the most rampant in the world today. Plutocracy doesn't really recognize national boundaries. It is mostly global in nature. Rich people can easily transcend the conventional restrictions of travel and doing business due to the separation of the world into different nations. The rich make wealth at the expense of the poor - and most of the poor are in the poorer countries of the world such as South Asia and Africa. Now China is making money by selling mobile phones and computers to the Indian people. The USA, Russia, China, France and Britain make an awful lot of money by selling weapons to India and other countries and these are bought with the money that the people in these countries pay through taxes. Therefore the people in poor countries support the weapons industry of rich countries in a big way. The rich buy politicians, religious leaders and the military generals and therefore ultimately the whole world becomes ruled by the rich.
Now what are we do to about all these? Can we stop exploitation and ruling and implement governance through justice? This is not possible so long as we continue to see these ruling ideologies and methods as proper and noble. The real divide of power in the world today is not between different nations, political parties or religions. The real divide is between the common people and the rulers. People lose individual freedom and rights through forced attribution of identities of nationality, religion and party by those who want to rule them. People are a biological group bounded by the common interests of food and water, housing, clothing, facilities for education, proper healthcare, sanitation and pollution-free environment. These needs are denied by rulers at present and in the past - for their private ends. What people need is good environment, optimal wages for their labor and a fair share of the earth's arable land to cultivate and grow food from. They don't need pride in any identity - of nationality, religion or party - to live and to be happy. These are the rulers' needs by which they exploit people as 'human resources' to make wealth for themselves.
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