What You Need to Know about The Anthro-Hyena

The anthro-hyena is a creation of my imagination to explain how political power can be organized to make us, (the general population who breath, bleed, fear), believe what we can or cannot do.

Let us suppose that the anthro-hyena does exist, like satan, or ghosts or highly secret societies.

Let's say the anthro-hyena have been among us since the beginning of organized human societies and they rose to the top initially because of their intellectual abilities. They learned about astronomy, farming, the creation of weapons, the calendar and tracking of the seasons, the running of the state and good orderly direction.

Let's suppose the anthro-hyena is created by design and not born, that he feels no attachment to any tribe or family; his blood is not related to any species because he has no blood. He is the algorithm of greed and self interest developed over centuries of human societies.  The anthro-hyena has triumphed over all addictions except the single-minded determination to be in control. He feels neither love nor hate towards people. His mind is a clean to-do list, quick to strike off whatever has been achieved to get on with the next task.

Let's suppose the anthro-hyena is neither good or evil. Just efficient and willing to win at any cost.

Monarchs, corporations, religions and governments have depended on anthro-hyenas to organize and carry out their campaigns for territory, wealth, and supremacy. But let me be clear. The anthro-hyena is NOT the emperor, king, queen or president of anything or anyone. He is the servant of the corporate board room.

Because of his strategic abilities we cannot live without him. Collectively they are the ether of civilization. They have the focus to create submission and obedience among the masses and then dissemble them. Their art is manipulation and anonymity. They are the shadows without flesh.

Their goal is to cleanse the planet of humanity to reach the pristine view that transcends life - the final solution, a mathematical construct free of any sentimental interference, an everlasting universal peace.

However, you won't find him on the battle field.  You will not hear his voice broadcast from any radio or television. He is the free radical brainwaves that enter the ambitions of men and women. He arouses the desperate, starving, fearful masses to spill blood or build nuclear warheads. He is the quiet dread in our night time dreams.

The ideology of individualism is the work of the anthro-hyena because it interrupts the open communication between men and women. Makes us suspicious of our kin who we dismiss as bogie men in the bushes and beneath our beds.

While we become "experts" on what is wrong with the world, the anthro-hyena becomes embedded in our language.  The strength of words like enemy, discipline, loyalty, masculinity, femininity, white, black, reason, lies, nonsense, infidel, savage, barbaric - attach themselves together to build a wall of silent screams to keep us in and the others out.

Can we save ourselves from the anthro-hyena? Whatever political ideology we create to make a better world will be invaded by memories of the past. History will keep repeating itself because the anthro-hyena will remind us of all that can go wrong, of all who are to blame, and how the shadows grow longer.

When we are in our cups, or vulnerable, in pain, near death, giving birth, or challenging the system - the anthro-hyena will be smiling like Iago as he makes his fool his purse.

The forces that control our world are the call and response between the sponsored message and our fears.

Getting Tough, Simplifying the Disorder

In the latest UUWorld online newsletter, the Rev. Lynn Ungar responded to news that the U.S. would be pulling out of the Paris climate accord.

"The fact of the matter is that the current administration works out of an ideology of “getting tough.” The primary value is expressing dominance, not achieving goals that would be of real advantage to the citizens of the US. We “get tough” with our allies rather than looking at how we could cooperate to mutual advantage. . . . We “get tough” by eliminating regulations, without bothering to pay attention to whether those regulations serve the common good, or whether there might be different regulations that might serve everyone better. . . .


The goal is to demonstrate power and control. . . . There is no weighing of costs and benefits. There is no search for creative solutions. There is only the goal of winning, and you know that you are winning because someone else is losing.


It is, in short, the epitome of both white supremacy and toxic masculinity. And it could be the death of us all. (Quest for Meaning, June 1)"

The White Man as Political Construct

An infection has come to that political construct known as The White Man. 

Let me be clear that I am not talking of men who are white, I am talking of the expectations and demands of a society that describes him as "White". 

He has been fed hate and violence in media from mainstream to social. The neoliberal economy has cast an invisible fence around him so that his humanity is reduced to whatever serves the bottom line. 

The first fence was constructed centuries ago when he was taught to be 'rational', not rational by questioning the beliefs of his time, but to eschew  his feelings, to be suspicious of love, and to be faithful to the role of defender and warrior. He has been the consistent target of propaganda.

The White Man is not a race or species but a construct that was useful when Europeans invaded other continents such as Africa, Asia Australia and America.  European nations who had a long history of war with each other found a new identity when they discovered aboriginal societies who had darker complexions whom they stole land, goods and women from, and began a new career in slavery. 

Designating the people as savage, uncivilized, meant that the rape of the land and the people were easier for the conscience of the invaders.  The White Man was born, grew rich, authoritarian, and powerful. The White Man scoffed at literature, poetry, music, dance and art, after he colonized other continents. Again let me say I am not talking about men who are white but the mythology of the man.

Self reflection was inconvenient to the soldiers, teachers, and governors who had to brutalize others in order to succeed. But unknown to many was the brutalization of his own spirit as he was ordered into 'being a man' who would never complain of weakness, exhaustion, boredom and inner rage.  

His senses had to be replaced with a hard doctrine of power, and a promise of wealth and success. Doubts had to be silenced while the land was mined for gems, metal, and free labour. He had to turn away from the suffering he was ordered to inflict on others to maintain an empire of huge bank accounts and gigantic lies.  Lies such as the idea of progress depended on beating up those who were lower on the pecking order. 

It's not that this was invented by The White Man, its that he was moved from a personal relationship to the world, albeit full of dangers and hardships, to a constructed doctrine. The notion of white supremacy was and is the most devastating indoctrination. It guaranteed the ongoing domination of all for the profit for a few. Each century has wielded new lies to keep the whip in the hands of the unquestioning White Man. It tied his senses to the bridle of a mythical progress. 

Misogyny took the love of life out of his world and castrated his sensuality.  The men who have not found the success they were told was theirs 'as long as they obeyed the rules', have been tossed into slums  of despair. They have been discarded, labelled as rubbish and they are the ones now attempting to raise the flag of white supremacy again, in the hope that fascism, force, degradation of the other will fall under the boot of his rage.

What The White Man needs is friendship, meaningful work, dignity and empathy, denied him through an indifferent cruel economy.  He needs time and place to find his humanity among women, LGBTQ realities, asians, africans and aboriginals who have managed  to hold onto their humanity.

Far from being oppressed by immigrants, he may with a little poetry, and responsible democratic government, find the salvation of the white man as he returns to nature and discards the straightjacket of exploited machismo.

An article worth reading: Sorry 'Catching Fire,' Kids Hunger for Real Rebellion

"The dichotomous world in which we live is becoming more dramatic everyday, so naturally it gets dramatized in the form of film and television. The subterranean pressure that moves culture and people isn't all that easy to see, except for when it comes popping up in movies and TV shows. Like some malignant and massive mycelium that stretches around the globe, it makes both toadstools and movies. It might seem like it just magically sprouted overnight, but there is a vast network of lines of control just beneath the surface of things."

Dorothy Woodend, Today, The Tyee.

Desire, Design and the Operating System

It appears to me that human history and all its inventions dwell within a circle of power.  The glorification, the use and abuse of power interacts with our human endeavours mostly beyond our control. There are nations and people who possess power but not forever.  Anyone who has had power over others or things fears they cannot hold their control forever.  As individuals and institutions we create laws, culture (media) and ideology in order to maintain an illusion of control, to protect ourselves from chaos.  If I were to say this is the truth - it would be my attempt to wield power over this instant.  If I were to study philosophy, science, law and culture to the breadth and depth of my capacity it would be in order to influence the world.  It's too late in my life to attempt this even if I could, and even if I achieved it (500 years after William Shakespeare), it would be for a brief moment in time and place, and it would be a call for the next player to deconstruct this theory.

As news stories appear daily about our prime minister, the mayor of Toronto, or the president of the United States as they play out the extent of their given powers while they can, some may believe they possess powers beyond their position and that all they have to do is manage it well. But all political leaders must negotiate with the ever changing directions of power in their lives - the interests that support them and attack them are like tennis balls on a court which they must hit and send back to their opponents.

All that we desire and design is negotiated with other desires and designs which we cannot see or even plan for. There is always the pressure of the operating system projecting and sabotaging our strategies.

Our human history has led us to believe that we possess the power to control the world and we give those willing to stand up as leaders our loyalty, as long as they convince us they can protect us from the chaos of invading interests. But when our leaders break or reveal cracks in this promise we sack them with derision and ridicule.

This is a very violent game - to the senses of all who are involved.  It seeks scapegoats and sacrifices.  It allows millions to suffer starvation, genocide, indignity and madness, mostly because we cannot see power as something beyond our will, that no matter how much we worship and strategize, we can never control.

Because we are addicted to our own sense of entitlement we believe our leaders hold the key to our security through some kind of magic.  The esoteric rites are for high priests only, who are trained to keep the secrets of their submission to powers we cannot name or see.

So how can we live free of oppression? First by understanding that the oppressor is not a person or party or nation or corporation - it is a co-dependent game of denial.   They play their part sometimes well, sometimes appallingly, but the news reveals they are exhausted.  Even the largest corporation treating civil society like an obstruction to their goals, installing  puppet governments to do their bidding, can only maintain their illusion if we keep believing in it.

If power is within and beyond us then we must learn how to negotiate with power as we would with nature - that it belongs to history and the future, to our ancestors and our great-grandchildren.  This requires a sense of shared ownership and responsibility.