Blog.
“Anyone who refused to submit to what God himself had commanded was thus by definition a ‘rebel’ or an ‘unlawful combatant.’”
(Last Days of the Incas, p. 33)
“Most serene Inca! You will know that there are in the world two princes more powerful than all the rest. One of them is the supreme pontiff who represents God. He administers and rules all those who keep his divine laws, and teaches his holy word. The other is the emperor of the Romans, Charles V. king of Spain. These two monarchs, aware of the blindness of the inhabitants of these realms who disrespect the true God, maker of heaven and earth, and [who] adore…the very demon who deceives them, have sent our Governor and Captain General Don Francisco Pizarro and his companions and some priests, who are ministers of God, to teach Your Highness and all his vassals this divine truth and His holy law, for which reason they have come to this country.”
(Last Days of the Incas, p. 62)
From the perspective of a citizen living in 2011 with all that is going on in the world today, what do the statements above make you think? They were pronounced 500 years ago. How do they strike you? 130 years after Pizarro, the Puritans fled England in search of religious freedom in the New World. Nevertheless, within two years of their arrival they began slaughtering Indians under the same justification. That is, the Indians were heathens, non-Christian, barbaric and deserving of death. That slaughter lasted for 200 years in North America. In Guatemala during the 1960s U.S. Christian missionaries (Catholic Action) forcibly imposed their beliefs upon Mayans who they continued to consider primitive and backward. Today throughout Central Asia, in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the same words used by the Spaniards are appropriated by radical Muslims in the name of Allah instead of the Christian God. Pizarro, the Puritans, and Muslims invoke these words with some degree of sincere belief. But they also do it to justify conquest and control over other people and their land.
The point is to see constancy in human behavior, hypocritical as it has been and is. That which is constant is the use of ideology or theology (which is to say belief systems) to justify acquisition or control over other people and their resources. It’s important to be on the look-out for this behavior in the past and the present. Therefore, for your blog contribution this week I want you to find an example of the use of ideology or theology for the purpose of manipulating and/or controlling other people and their resources. That is, find an example (from the newspaper, history books or your own experience) in which an individual or group invokes an abstract belief (religious, patriotic, political or other) to legitimate their subsequent forcible control over other people and their resources. Describe it in roughly 100 words. Remember to insert your class-list number at the start of your posting. All postings are due by Saturday, April 2, at 5 pm.
[15] While assessing trends through history, modern phenomena’s prove to be the most fascinating affairs. Technology, government and society as a whole has completely altered since the start of the modern world. Such developments have had overwhelming consequences on history, however the occurrence of conflict, racisms and inept human tendencies of aggression have remained. Post industrial revolution demonization of the Jewish population occurred throughout Europe. In history classes, we spend a significant amount of time highlighting Hitler’s influence of such demonization in Germany. However, such racisms has been prevalent thought out the modern age. In Vienna anti-Semitic pamphlets and newspapers were not uncommon. “The Deutsche Volksbaltt was a popular Viennese paper whose appeal was derived from its anti-Semitism, anti-capitalism, anti-French and anti-liberalism.”
ReplyDeleteAs the industrial world boomed and laissez-fair economics became prominent, educated Jews proved to rise economically. These economic advances allowed for animosity and hatred among other groups to surface. But it was the media and propaganda that allowed for such racisms to truly thrive. This proves to be a modern example of the promotion of racist ideology. Regardless of color, money or status, demonization and racism continues to resonate through society.
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ReplyDelete[3]This consistency in human behavior of the use of ideology or theology to justify attacks on others can be applied in studying Osama Bin Laden and his attack on the United States in 2001. Bin Laden’s strong beliefs in the importance of the restoration of Sharia law, and that all other ideologies, including democracy, are harmful to human kind. It is this belief that Bin Laden used to justify his bombing of the Twin Towers in New York City, and the murdering of a thousand people. He uses his beliefs to justify the killing of all his targets. Bin Laden sees all others as barbarians and enemies to his God. This is one of many modern day examples of the use of theology to justify harmful acts on others.
ReplyDelete[10] Manipulation of power is used practically everyday in order to control other people and or their resources. It occurs in our boss who may use their power over our job in order to utilize our human resource to perform work. It occurs with us as a consumer, the belief that the customer is always right. We manipulate our use of money in order to get the best deal. It also works against us as consumer in order for a company or salesmen to make the sale and get our money. We as parents use manipulation of our authority to get our children to behave and listen. Sometimes as a parent we are also hypercritical. How many times have we disciplined our child for saying bad words we use ourselves or tell our child that they can not go on the computer until their homework is complete, yet we ourselves will check facebook while we still have yet to complete our household chores. Our justification as a parent is just that, “I am the parent and an adult, you are the child and you need to listen.”
ReplyDelete[21] A great modern example of a group of people exhibiting force over another group is the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The first KKK began in order to promote white supremacy; they did this by threatening and murdering black and white Republicans. Due to this effort, white democrats regained political power. The second KKK focused on Americanism and wanted to purify politics. The way they did this is by using racism. They did not support Jews or immigrants; they were also against the Catholic church and Communists. Therefore, they carried out violent activities against these people. The final insurgence of the KKK focused on the civil rights movement; they were against desegregation and would stop it by any means necessary. Throughout the history of the KKK, the issues they attacked were solely focused on their religious, patriotic, and political opinions. They held these opinions in order to benefit their current belief.
ReplyDelete[7] Throughout history there have been countless numbers of examples that displayed the manipulative uses of ideological and theological principles. One particular example, that holds my attention, is found in the history of the Catholic Church’s theology, and more specifically on their former practice and belief of indulgences. In this practice a family member of a deceased person would have the “opportunity” pay the church money, or indulgences, and in turn the church would ensure their loved one was free of sin and guaranteed a place in haven. This practice was founded on the principle that a person could buy their way into haven. The sad part about this case of extortion is that anyone that truly reads and believes the bible as truth would know that this practice is in direct opposition to the gospel message of salvation by grace. This belief in indulgences led to the lucrative extortion of many people’s life savings when their spouse would pass away. Many widows gave all they had to the church in hopes of their deceased husband reaching the pearly gates, but in reality this practice held no eternal weight and was a massive scam produced by the Catholic Church under the umbrella of theology.
ReplyDelete[17] Through out history, there have been many examples of people using ideology or theology for the purpose of manipulating and/or controlling other people and their resources. An example that comes to mind is Hitler. He was just one man with a belief that all Jews should be killed. This reasoning is very irrational however, for some reason many followed his commands. I believe that the main reason others followed him was because they were afraid of being killed themselves. However, if others would have stood up against him the Holocaust may have never happened. This is just one of the many reasons history is so important. One needs to know the past mistakes this world has made to make sure the same ones do not happen again. However, many people chose to ignore history and fall into the same problems that caused the death of millions of people.
ReplyDelete[24] There are many ways that humans are manipulated through theology and ideology, including the government and corporations. The government finds ways to show the people of the United States what they want them to believe. By showing us our efforts in other countries to help us believe that we are actually doing something effective in other countries, or gaining support to invade another country in efforts against "terrorism." It is surprising how many people in the world that are easily manipulated by a higher power. A good example of government, corporation, or higher power controlling the minds of many people includes the different forces in other countries that agree the best way to get attention is to hurt others or try to show their power.
ReplyDelete[23] The recent unrest in the country of Libya can be tied into the reading because it is an example of one group pushing their will onto another. Before Gadaffi came to power, he was a colonel in the Libyan military. From this position, he rallied others to eventually overthrow the existing monarchy and moved into the power seat and has remained there for fourty-two years. Now there is unrest in Libya again and this time it is Gadaffi who is the target. Once again he is using force to try to resolve the conflicts. This is very much an example of one group moving away from one power, only to eventually become the power that they strove to remove themselves from.
ReplyDelete[18] A strong example of a group invoking an abstract belief to legitimize their forceable control of another group is the Crusades, where Roman Catholics waged war against Balts, Jews, and Muslims to take back the holy land of Jerusalem. The so called "knights of Christ" believed that they were undertaking a pilgrimage from God to purge the world of all those who did not believe in Jesus Christ as their savior. By believing in Christ, the Roman Catholics thought that they were the rightful "owners" of the holy land, and murdered anyone who disagreed in the name of Christ.
ReplyDelete[5] One example of the use of ideology or theology for the purpose of manipulation and controlling other people and their resources is Charles Manson’s control over a group known as the Family. Back in the 60’s, Manson, a recently released convict, decided to utilize the flower power age of America to gain a following, by becoming a guru. Manson was able to recruit vulnerable women, and then through manipulation of sex and drugs was able to recruit more members to what Manson called the Family. Manson utilized the Beatles song “Helter Skelter,” which he was able to twist and convey to his Family that the song informed of an imposing apocalypse. The manipulation used by Manson to get his Family to view him as a God reached a pinnacle when Manson was able to order and conduct serial killings in the Los Angeles area, in 1969. The most notable of the serial killings was the stabbing of eight and a half month pregnant Sharon Tate, wife of the critically acclaimed film director, Roman Polanski. The result of the serial killings found Charles Manson and his Family in prison. Manson currently is serving a life sentence to California State Prison, Corcoran, where he has the chance of parole in 2012.
ReplyDelete[2] – I chose to write about the Charles Mansion Family and Helter Skelter. Taking Helter Skelter from a Beatles song, Mason formulated the lyrics to be about an apocalyptic race war that was to come about within the upcoming years. He was able to manipulate and convince many young teenagers of the sixties to commit various acts of violence to help begin this race war. One of the most memorable acts of violence perpetrated by Mason were the Tate/LaBianca murders. Manson convinced three women and one man to go into Hollywood and seek out the home of Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. At the time, Tate was eight months pregnant and Roman was out of town. Because she did not like to be alone, she often had dinner/slumber parties with friends to help her through the nights as she became closer to giving birth. The women stabbed to death Tate and all of her friends, leaving no mercy for even her unborn child. After the conviction of the murders, the accused stated that Manson’s influence over them caused them to do the actions that they were responsible for. His religious and political influence over these people caused all of these actions to occur.
ReplyDelete[22]. I found my example of how the use of ideology is used to manipulate a group of people and their resources in the Thursday, March 31st edition of the Tribune Review. In the article “Ohio Unions Stripped of Rights Under Labor Bill,” it is discussed how the Republican party, who has historically ran as pro-business, pro-labor party, has passed a bill in the state House and Senate that would strip over 350,000 government workers’ rights, as a union, to negotiate health care, sick time, pension benefits, and wage increases. It is hypocritical of the Ohio state government to pass such a bill because it focuses not only on government employees themselves, but it also goes against the party platform that those politicians ran on to become elected officials. It was put in place to save an estimated $8 billion over a two-year budget. Unions were created and given such rights to protect workers and ensure a system of equality and fairness. By limiting what these unions will be able to negotiate, they are, in turn, reversing decades of legislature for a two-year fix to a budget crisis that those very politicians and “big business” created.
ReplyDelete[12] The terrorism that has been going on today is an example of people trying to legitimize their control over people through their beliefs. Bin Laden's and other attacks made by Muslims used their belief of Muslim superiority over Christians and any other religious group to justify the terroristic attacks that they have caused. On the other hand, the U.S. government has used the reason "to fight against terrorism" to legitimize the reason for entering the wars. Perhaps after 9/11 this was a good enough reason to start the war, but the war in Iraq to overthrow their leader can be seen as trying to force the U.S. belief of democracy on other people.
ReplyDelete"Anyone who refused to submit to what God himself had commanded was thus by definition a "rebel" or an "unlawful combatant".". This quote sums up the situation in Libya perfectly. One of the most well known extremist groups currently is the Libyan Mujhideen. The Mujhideen is violet on the Islamic credo and are a franchise of al Qaeda. They operate in Yemen, Algeria and North Africa as well.
ReplyDeleteThis group is described as having "nothing to lose" by resorting to violence. The sermons delivered to these extremists are laced with with phrases urging worshippers to support the jihad. This group only represents a portion of the extremists fighting for control in Libya. This content fighting for control could end up in a civil war and in the end Libya could be another Somalia.
These extremists believe that they are in their own way doing what Allah has commanded them to do. We may not agree with them or understand their ways; however,in their radical world as in this quote they believe they believe they are serving their God.
I believe that though times moves forward time does not change. Thought processes that were true for the Incas are still true today as we can see for the Libyan's and the Iraqi's. God is good.
[11]An example of how the use of theology was used to control a group of people was the Jim Crow law. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-Black laws. It was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-Black racism. Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that Whites were the chosen people and God supported racial segregation. People at every educational level supported the belief that Blacks were innately intellectually and culturally inferior to Whites. Pro-segregation politicians gave eloquent speeches on the great danger of integration. People who supported the Jim Crow law used religion and political leaders to justify racial segregation.
ReplyDeleteA very good example of an individual invoking an abstract belief through theology and ideology is a man by the name of Charles Manson. In high school, I chose to do a presentation on Charles Manson and I look back on how disgusted I was with what he did. He took control over so many innocent people who had no idea what was ahead of them by following this man. He used and manipulated many innocent women, and many other people in his "family" to make them think that he was a God of some sorts. He used a certain song, "Helter Skelter" by the Beatles to make them think an apocalypse was near. After they believed this, they would do anything they told him to such as killing innocent people in the famous murders that this "family" was known for. Two of the most famous murders by the family were that of Sharon Tate, and Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. The murders were only one day apart.
ReplyDelete[19]- Throughout history there have been many attempts by religious zealots, fanatical rulers, and overzealous leaders to control a large population or cache of resources in order to further their own beliefs or gains. The problem has always arisen as to which method of control is the best one with regards to controlling a large group of people. For me the choice was an obvious one and also one that has been around for centuries, The Catholic Church. Now, don’t misconstrued what I say as being heretical irreverence, but if you look at the history behind the church it is one fraught with bloodshed, manipulation, and power lust. They have successfully, for many years, been the motivation for countless invasions and seizures for furtherance of the religion.
ReplyDelete[6] One instance in which an individual invokes an abstract belief, through the utilization of religion, to legitimate his subsequent forcible control over other people and their resources was in the case of Louis XIV, the King of France. Louis XIV believed himself to be an absolute ruler. His authority was thus inherited and derived from God. He was not accountable to anyone but his own conscience. Louis XIV told his subjects that anyone who disobeyed him also disobeyed God, and he or she would be punished by God on his or her day of judgment. Louis was not satisfied that he ruled almost all his subjects; he decided to take it a step further and challenge the other major sovereign of the land, the Catholic Church. Louis was a devout Catholic but saw himself as the head of the Catholic Church in France, despite the Church being outraged by the aforementioned proclamation. Since the people of France were very religious and a lot were Catholics, Louis’s propaganda worked for the most part, until he went too far and was condemned to death due to his unpopularity. The first quote mentioned above in the email strikes me as inane because I believe no one living truly knows what God’s will is. Therefore, it is illogical to utilize something that is unknown as a standard for judgment. The second quote merely reflects the Spaniards’ arrogance because they did not come in the name of King Charles V; they came to satisfy their own greed and procure wealth by plunder and conquest.
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ReplyDelete[9] In reading the blog criteria for this week the first thing that came to mind was the political buzz surrounding gun control. President Obama’s position to limit the purchase of firearms to 1 per month per qualified individual (proposed Bill in 2000) was rejected. Why? Most US Citizens believe it infringes on their constitutional rights to bear arms and gives the government TOO much control. Currently, each state has their own requirements/regulations. For instance, Vermont, Alaska and Arizona, firearm owners are permitted to carry without a permit. In other states however, it is illegal all together. The point is people want the right to make their own choices and not be required by law or forced to follow laws which contradict what we know as our civil liberties today.
ReplyDelete[4] A most notable public example of a individual invoking control over people psychologically and in turn their resources, is David Koresh of the Branch Davidians in the late 1980’s and then to the tragic ending in 1993. David Koresh worked his way up the ranks of the sect and at the Palestine, Texas camp, Koresh worked it so that everyone was forced to rely on him, and him alone. All previous bonds and attachments, family or otherwise, meant nothing. His rationale was if they had no one to depend on, they had to depend on him, and that made them vulnerable. He gave the message of his own "Christhood", proclaiming that he was the Son of God, the Lamb who could open the Seven Seals. Tragically on April 19, 1993 barricaded in their building, seventy-six Branch Davidians, did not survive the fire. Seventeen of these victims were children under the age of 17. Those who died were unable, or unwilling, to flee. Autopsy records indicate that at least 20 Branch Davidians were shot, including 5 children. This represents a prime modern day example of a groups ideological beliefs becoming twisted and misconstrued by someone who has the ability and charisma to overpower the group mentally and control their entire psyche. It’s hard to imagine this happening today, but is does and as it did in Latin American history.
ReplyDelete(22)During the 1980’s a new leader named Slobodan Milosevic gained power by religious hatred. In Kosovo, he began to increase the tension between Serbs and Muslims, claiming the Serbs were being mistreated by the Muslim majority. He labeled this as “ethnic cleansing” which is something we have learned about in the previous chapters. He had mass killings, destruction of Muslim mosques and concentration camps. Serbs were confident that no one was going to intervene and help the Muslims so they committed genocide against them in Bosnia. Under the command of General Ratko Mladic, they killed nearly 8,000 men and engaged in mass rapes of Muslim females, which is considered one of the worst mass murders in Europe since World War II. Approximately 200,000 Muslim civilizations were murdered and around 2,000,000 became refugees. In 1995, international forces from the U.S led a bombing campaign targeting Serbian positions and finally capturing Milosevic.
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