A Tale of Two Peoples, Two Currencies, Two Worldviews

For what its worth, some thoughts I'm finding intriguing. . .

We all strive towards our highest value, whether we realize it or not. Our value structure dictates our behavior, and our hierarchy of values is the most efficient descriptor of who we are as human beings at any given moment. If I grow up valuing strength, I will almost inevitably become stronger over time. If I grow up valuing cunning, I'll naturally become more cunning. We all drift, often unconsciously, towards that which we've been convinced has value.

Formerly, all Indo-European peoples and cultures had a God at the top of this value structure: A supreme being that was noble, lofty, all-powerful and perfection epitomized.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with this belief itself, its end-result was a questing and striving by each individual to walk more closely with this God, to shed our own imperfect characteristics and to attempt to take on, insofar as each of us is capable, superior characteristics. The more devout a given society was, the more this striving was all-encompassing, in some cases the sole purpose of their existence.

The names and the characteristics of this Supreme power would shift over time, but there were firm ties that bound, unifying elements throughout all of these shifts. These characteristics and elements were almost without exception wholly 'positive' and healthy, with regards to their effect on maintaining health, order, hierarchy, justice, happiness. These traits became the currency that dictated hierarchy within the community, in a very real way.

Meanwhile, another group was developing in parallel, with a very different God, and thus a very different value structure. Best represented by the Phoenician/Canaanite/Khazarian elements, this group became largely mercantile, seeking to profit from international trade routes and supply-and-demand disparities. They were far less rooted in the soil, far less interested in creating a harmonious and healthy homeland of any sort. Instead, their bottom line was trading profits, extracting maximum value. Money became the currency dictating hierarchy within the community.

While the former group began to prize concepts like courage, loyalty, trust, honor, nobility, traits that help solidify the foundations of rooted-nations attached to a home soil, the latter group, being essentially rootless, began to prize an entirely different sort of characteristics. From the times of Moloch and the golden calf of Baal, these peoples began to deify material possessions, wealth, and the material world at large. Their temples were used for prostitution, where wives could be purchased outright. For them, it was the external that mattered: riches, adornment, power, instant gratification. . and style over substance, impression over reality. Traits like courage, honor and nobility had little purpose for a traveling merchant, and in fact could be an outright threat to their bottom line. Instead, cleverness, shrewdness, the ability to manipulate and control: these became the highest values, the traits which helped formulate the hierarchies within this group's world.

What happens when these two groups meet, and share the umbrella of a single nation? How might this dynamic play out, and who might have the advantage?

The former has learned how to be hospitable, to trust his fellow man and always assume the best of him. Millenia of operating within societies where the populations strove to be honorable and trustworthy can cause a people to be kindly, tolerant, even naive. The latter, however, has learned the art of showmanship, manipulating, convincing, haggling. The art of extracting the largest possible sum at every turn. . not so much caring to be honest as much as appearing to be honest, thus allowing him to engage in similar deals in the near future.

The answer to the question above is an obvious one: the former culture, in a mixed society, are lambs among wolves. They approach the merchant-caste expecting him to be direct, honest, assuming he cares about being seen as just and honorable. They innocently give the benefit of the doubt, time and time again, not being able to contemplate the internal machinations of this foreign being: literally unable to comprehend just how differently he's wired, how opposite his worldview.

The former misunderstands the latter, but the latter understands the former very well, and is thus able to play him like a fiddle. To significantly simplify, one group has been trained over the millennia to seek to 'out-good one another', the other group has sought to 'out-deal' one another. In other words to make full use of our universal petty and base human instincts to attain advantage. The former has a strict code of conduct they adhere to, often unconsciously, its so deeply and innately engrained. The latter has the immense freedom that comes with shamelessness, and lacks such hindrances or restrictions. If one can get away with something unscathed and profit from it, it is to the highest degree 'right', speaks the code of this latter group. The Talmud even glorifies, repeatedly, the use of manipulation to deceive a cheat a racial enemy.

It's my contention that this is where we are today: Many have ceased to believe in a God, creating a void to be filled. Money has become the new God, for many. . . the highest value. The Indo-European warrior and priestly castes have been all but subsumed by a merchant caste, one that can even masquerade as a priestly case when warranted, whom we now trust not only to manage our economic machinations worldwide, but to lead us. Virtually every last significant lever of power in the western world is dominated by this ilk, due to a quiet and efficient monopolization (purposeful or organic) over the past several decades of legal, political, financial and media/entertainment roles.

In my view, this has been an unprecedented disaster on every front. . . ushering in an age of confusion, chaos, depression and uncertainty. No ideology is more diametrically opposed to true leadership than that of this merchant-caste haggler. He cares little for subjects, citizens, fellow countrymen, broadly speaking. . . and in most cases doesn't consider the man next to him a fellow countryman at all, merely another human being representing further opportunity for power, control, extraction. The concept of 'nobility' is utterly foreign, and in fact this element seems to have embraced the inverse. Nobility and virtue are quaint ideas to be scoffed at, naive and childish. The sad irony here is that this merchant caste shylock has a very real and valid point: these Indo-European characteristics so prized by western socieites only have their desired effect only in homogeneous environments, in which everyone plays by the same rulebook, with a similar value structure. In every other case, they're disastrous, devastating, suicidal.

My contention is that our Gods, our ideologies, our worldviews, are innately incompatible. I feel the sooner we recognize this and act accordingly, the less bloodshed and mass-violence we'll have in the adjustment period. My contention is that we return to our roots, and seek to institute a value structure that rewards 'Arete', virtue, nobility.

In the meantime, we carelessly sprint towards Armageddon, lulled into an illusory wonderland, fast asleep. This battle for hearts and minds being waged as we speak is all-important, literally a crossroads for our species.

Can we right the ship, and return to something resembling harmony and balance, a 'just' hierarchy and a culture of self-sacrifice and brotherhood? Or, is this the rumblings of Ragnarok, the culminating stage of the Kali Yuga, on the horizon?

What role are you playing?