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.

Rethinking the Global Fight Against Extremism February 24, 2015 by Hardeep S. Puri and Omar El Okdah

"Between February 17-19, a large conference on “Countering Violent Extremism” convened in Washington, bringing together senior foreign dignitaries from over 60 countries, law enforcement officials, religious leaders, and experts. The meeting constituted a reaffirmation of the need for an effective multilateral strategy to counter and prevent violent extremism in today’s increasingly challenging environments. At the same time, it hinted at a very significant change in the international community’s approach to these problems: Scope, strategy, and semantics are being duly reconsidered. And yet a series of contradictions threaten to hamper the possibility of making credible headway." Hardeep S. Puri and El Okdah


Read more here: The Global Observatory

What is Love?

Beginning with Paul's letter to the Corinthians, love is patient, kind, it does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonour, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.

So that is pretty straight forward. There are six things that love is and seven things it is not according to this Biblical passage. 

For Will Shakespeare - "love is not love which alters when it alteration finds ... it is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests ... and is never shaken.

You have to be older than twenty to appreciate Shakespeare's instruction. It is an idealistic notion and I can see how this might be true and how it might not. However he does carry some authority because of all the plays he wrote that we still love because his characters resemble a timeless authenticity. He has earned his credibility.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu

In my life this is true. As a young child I was loved and so grew to be an adult, then was loved again. These are markers in my life where I could have discounted the love I received because it was less than perfect, or the courage to carry on when my love was also imperfect.


“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.”
― Robert Fulghum, True Love

Weirdness is another word for the unpredictable, for diversity of experience.  Love does not attempt to prove that it exists, it is not a chemical compound, the GDP, or "jobs and the economy".  Is love the reason for these things? Not exclusively but perhaps to allow love to remain.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” 

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

And so the most powerful people on earth might have been successful at locking away their hearts to leave a clear head for strategy - to keep their lovers on a leash to use at their convenience. Or the most broken people on earth have locked away their hearts because their experience leads them to believe that is the only way they can survive. This is what Karen Armstrong calls the "reptilian brain".

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

There are so many friends around, so many people who base their work on love and truth. We are not famous because we are abundant. We don't remark on them as something distant like a news headline because we know them. Diverse, imperfect - we need your help. Need you to be clear in mind and heart so that we can get behind the trends that lead us to more happiness and less suffering.

Yes all these quotes but one are from men. Why is that? Why did I choose men rather than women? I chose those who were well known in many nations and women are not as celebrated globally in that sense. However I will end with a quote by Hannah Arendt which I think is the most profound.

"Love, by its very nature, is unworldly, and it is for this reason rather than its rarity that it is not only apolitical but antipolitical perhaps the most powerful of all antipolitical forces." Hannah Arendt.

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.