POWER GROUPS–PART TWO
TRANSFORMING POWER INTO WEALTH
Gaining power was initially associated with leading group of people in order to survive against predators and to provide food.
As time passed, the leaders with power found that they could take privileges with the others in their tribe and also accumulate material things that others did not have, such as clothing and additional housing.
If we look at primitive tribes today, we see that their leaders have larger dwellings and more food and clothing.
Over the centuries, leaders built much larger and larger homes until they were finally living in castles. Their clothing became more ornate, until they no longer resembled the common citizen. This enhanced their ability to control the common citizen and leaders sought more and more power.
As we saw in Part One, the number of leaders grew as the population grew.
But– the population or “the public,” always believed there was only one leader. The public saw the top leader as the “father”. The leaders took great advantage of this belief. They use this belief to this very day.
CHANGING LEADERSHIP METHODS
As numbers change in a system so do the characteristics of the system.
If you have one wheel, it is almost impossible to use that wheel as a vehicle. But with two wheels you can build a bicycle. With three wheels, a tricycle with a small cab. But, with four wheels, you can build a car or a truck.
With one person, you can do very little. But, as the number of people increases you can form armies, build farms and factories, build cities and bridges and buildings.
The problem that evolved for the leaders that controlled the increasing number of people was the methodology. What methods could be applied to control increasing numbers? Numbers that began to merge into tens of millions of citizens.
SELF IDENTIFICATION
It was very obvious to the leaders that their fellow citizens identified with each other because of their common language, their common physical appearance and their common likes and dislikes.
This common self identification was always tied to geographical location.
People of a certain village called each other the name of that village. When that village grew into a city, they called each other citizens of that city. For example, in Italy, the inhabitants of Bologna call each other “Bolognese”. The inhabitants of New York call each other “New Yorkers”. Those of Paris, call each other “Parisians”.
People from other areas are seen as “strange” and, in Italian, they are called: “Stranieri” strangers. English uses “Foreigners” which is a term that means: “Not from here.” In German, the term is “Auslander”, from a different land.
We can see that “Self identification” is a powerful, innate, emotional force. The potential leaders took advantage of this forceful emotion to bind their citizens to themselves.
Such self identification is also used in the military forces, where, for example, in the U.S. Marine Corps, Marines say: “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” Marines are taught to give their lives to save other Marines. This is an extreme in self identification.
But citizens of any country when in a foreign land, tend to live in the same neighborhoods, eat the same foods of their original country and meet each other to use their original language.
This Social Self identification is the strongest tool that the leadership uses in its armentarium for controlling the growing number of citizens.
RELIGION
Throughout history, religion, with its beliefs, but, most importantly, with it social apparatus, “The Church” was used to control citizens-– to the point that they would sacrifice their lives for their religious beliefs.
In Europe, for over seven hundred years, the Catholic Church ruled the entire continent.
The Protestant Church ruled the United States for almost one century, determining the type of behavior the citizens could enjoy, in terms of alcohol, sex, and speech. To this very day, political parties are concerned about abortion and the use of alcohol.
In India, the Hindu religion plays a major political role in who become India’s leaders.
Amongst the over one and a half billion Muslims of the world, religion is the foremost factor in their lives.
The Chinese and Japanese and many other Asian countries are controlled by their values in Buddhism and other similar religions.
Latin America is strongly Catholic and non-Catholic citizens do not get leadership positions.
BRIEF SUMMARY
We see that Leadership is a source of Wealth. If you have Power, you have Wealth.
There are simple methods for attaining power. These include the fact that humans obey the psychological forces of SELF IDENTIFICATION and RELIGION.
THEY ALSO BELIEVE THAT LEADERSHIP IS A FORM OF FATHER-HOOD.
All people, across the world, describe their leader in terms that they would use if he were their father. They would rather love their lead than hate him. They will discard their leader if he proves unable to help them, but they do so reluctantly.
The true leaders, the Power Groups, take full advantage of this underlying psychological force. The Power Groups combine Self Identification, Religion and Father Figure into one powerful package.
To be continued…
