Early Morning Thoughts, January 15, 2020
The Basic Problem With Organized Gangs
For some odd reason I was thinking about organized gangs this morning, and that got me to thinking about what an organized gang really is. So, my own humble definition of the term ‘gang’ is any group of humans who define a geographic territory as theirs and who use force and violence in their attempt to control almost every aspect of life inside that territory. That’s a pretty broad definition, so what do I include within that definition?
Well, how about including organized governments? Governments are not voluntary groups of humans, and they use force and violence to control people in their own defined territory. So governments would be an example of organized gangs according to my definition.
Then how about including actual criminal gangs? What defines a criminal but the main organized gang in an area (i.e. government), so do criminal gangs operate in the same manner as do the government gangs? Are criminal gangs defined as criminal gangs (organized crime) by government because, they are basically competition to the government gangs, or because they cause real harm to the community? And if criminal gangs cause harm to the community, is their harm any worse than government harm? Tough call, eh?
And what about religious gangs? Do they operate in the same manner as government gangs and criminal gangs? In some respects, yes they do. A review of human history shows us many examples of religious sects using force and violence to attain control people in a designated area.
“Although today Western society generally accepts that freedom of religious belief and expression is an innate human right, that position emerged only after centuries of religious intolerance and persecution, and centuries of interreligious hatred so extreme that it frequently resulted in wars of religion.” — David J. B. Trim, Liberty Magazine, Mar, Apr, 2010.
And Trim is right. The Spanish Inquisition was horrible. The Crusades were horrible. The Israeli treatment of native Palestinians is horrible. Interestingly enough, Muslims seem to respond to attacks, but don’t initiate them – that speaks well for Muslims.
As I have noted before, I was raised Christian and have watched the Netflix Turkish series (all 448 episodes) of “Resurrection: Ertugrul.” If the episode stories are true and accurate to any level, I am fairly impressed with how Islam and Muslims react to life. I have so much still to learn…
But now the questions start to arise about leadership and whether or not leaders are needed by humans. Certainly many modern ‘leaders’ are sociopaths, but have they always been that way? And if we consider anyone’s god as their own personal leader, is that bad, or are all gods also sociopaths? What happens if someone does not believe in a god type of leader? Is that individual a bad or evil human?
Are all ‘leaders’ sociopaths? What about Ertugrul – was he a sociopath? What about his attachment and devotion to Allah – was that bad? Did Ertugrul do bad things without cause? If you compare Allah with Jesus, is one better or more just than another? If Christ was a giver, not a taker, then how did the Crusades happen?
Moving ahead a few centuries and into our modern life, did the Muslim countries start all of the modern wars, or were the modern wars cause by the zio-american attempts at forcing the destruction of smaller countries and the merging all humans into a one world government? Is the one world government a Christian concept, or is it a Talmud Jewish concept? Did political Zionism arise out of Christianity, or did it arise out of Talmud Judaism? (Hint: the protocols do help answer this question)
So many questions, eh? The point I am leading up to is actually several points. First and foremost is the understanding that the world is largely controlled by organized gangs, some of which pose as legitimate governments that allegedly represent the people of their lands. Maybe it has always been thus. Having said that, and because governments are NOT voluntary in nature, I have issues with them all. I was not born to be a slave to anyone, or to any group, regardless of whether they call themselves ‘government’ or not. Screw all that plantation master/slave mentality.
Secondly, humans are sadly saddled with people called leaders who may or may not be sociopaths (but note that many actually and really are sociopaths. IMO). Certainly historical leaders like George Washington and Ertugru led from the front as all ‘leaders’ should do, but almost all modern leaders live a relatively low risk life, and push from the rear, not lead from the front. Trump and Bibi rule via threats and via force and violence from the safety of their government strongholds. Maybe this is a modern problem. I don’t know, but I do think that ruling via threats, force, and violence is wrong. On so many levels.
Third, I suspect that many governments and/or criminal gangs are/were founded on certain religious belief systems. Religions invariably believe that some intangible spirit called ‘God’ is responsible for all events in life. Maybe that’s true, but it appears that good gods breed good humans, and bad gods breed bad humans.
The dark side of some religions is, however, that really evil humans can claim that they are god’s chosen humans, that their ‘god’ is the best god, and that everyone else who disagrees with their religious attitude is wrong headed as hell and does not deserve to live free on earth. Really? My god is better than your god? Does that attitude tell us that man created god and that all religious groups are merely political sects?
It appears to me that humans are all different and that because of those differences we can all learn from each other. It also tells me that every human thinks he/she are the good guys and that we should listen to each other. We all have interesting stories to tell. Amaryllis Fox’s secret life in the CIA taught her one primary lesson: Listen to your enemy.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Organized gangs invariably use force and violence to control others. We can learn from others – we don’t have to kill them simply because they are different than us. If you have questions or comments, send them along.
Have a great day and enjoy what remaining and limited freedoms you have to live your own life as a free human. Freedom of control by others is what life is all about. IMO.
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