The Pecking Order

 

I keep chickens, and the pecking order is a real thing. For me it’s hard to watch, but I’ve learned over the years to let nature be nature as much as possible, although sometimes I have to intervene. There is definitely a hierarchy in a flock of chickens, be the flock small or large. The leader is usually the biggest, the strongest, and the healthiest, and the line works down to the smallest, weakest, or the odd bird that is different in some way. Those differences could be of personality, but often it is because they look different, or are a different breed. The bottom of the pecking order gets picked on a lot, pecked by the other birds, run off from the food and water, and they have to grow rather creative to get their needs met. After all these years I can identify the bottom of the pecking order with a glance as they appear a little disheveled from their feathers being plucked out, a little smaller as they don’t get as much food as the others, and they are separated from the flock and forced to range and forage alone. 

 

When I first became aware of this fowl order I was a little dismayed. “Why can’t we all get along?” And I’m softhearted and wanted to rescue the bottom chicken, and occasionally I have to bring one in and give it special treatment to bring it back to health, but that’s a slippery slope if I plan to reintroduce it to the flock. Once the bird is brought back to health and set back into the flock the order is immediately reestablished, and the bottom has to literally fight its way into its new position. Sometimes it manages to work its way up the ranks, but usually it’s back to being ostracized after a good butt kicking by the leader and a few others.

 

People aren’t much different than chickens in this sense. Having worked in offices with a majority of women the pecking order is quite apparent, although it rarely gets physical. The hierarchy in an office is ruled much the same as a flock, the leader is usually the one with the most seniority, position, and control over the group, and the bottom is usually a newer member or someone different who doesn’t automatically fit into the group. The bottom of the human pecking order doesn’t get pecked and kept from food and water, but does get ostracized, gossiped about, and excluded. Fortunately for me most of my jobs were solo endeavors where I wasn’t with the group full time, and my jobs were outside of the office, or separate from the group, and usually something that I did alone. But the politics of the pecking order still reached out to put me into my place and clarify that I didn’t fit with the group.

 

I’ve been blessed with not caring too much if I fit in, and usually I didn’t have a lot of respect for the top of the order for various reasons. Perhaps it was early childhood training and being excluded from a young age, but frankly I’ve never really cared to fit into a group. I’ve also never been motivated by the jealousy that would require me to fight like a chicken to achieve a higher position, I simply didn’t care, and had other things on my mind. My attitude was often infuriating to the top tier because in their minds fitting into the hierarchy of office politics was important, but to me a job was just a means to survive in the world, and other than receiving a paycheck not much else about it mattered. I did my job, and did it well, and kept to myself, much like the odd bird that ranges and forages alone.

 

The hierarchy of the pecking order is also quite present in dysfunctional families where everyone bends over backwards to keep the leader, the most dysfunctional one, happy and content. And perhaps this is where my early childhood training taught me not to care too much if I fit in or not. As a child I knew what I didn’t want to be, I didn’t want to grow up and be bitter, I didn’t want to be angry all the time, and I didn’t want to hurt and put down others, so I would never be the leader. My place at the bottom of the pecking order was something I was used to by the time I entered the working world. As a child I had to figure things out for myself, no one was gently guiding me or teaching me how to do anything, from house cleaning and cooking to keeping up with school work to getting along with others all the way down to personal hygiene I had to figure everything out alone. These early skills of learning to figure things out made me a valuable employee in many of my solo jobs, but a pretty lousy member of the office pecking order.

 

In the Bible there are many comparisons to nature, from sheep and shepherds to fig trees and crops (wheat and tares) to the various birds and animals mentioned throughout the stories, and I think it’s important to understand these things to help broaden our understanding of what the Bible is teaching us. We are above the animals, meant to care for them and be good stewards to them, and to do that we must understand their natures, and see how in our own natural state we aren’t much different than them. Most people desire a leader, but seem to only look to man instead of putting their eyes on and hearts to our higher power, God. If we follow the rules that have been laid out for us there is no real need for the pecking order, if we obey and seek wisdom God will lead us away from the pack, the flock, the politics toward His truth and His peace.

 

The pecking order is brutal and cruel, but God pulls his chosen ones away from that low and uninspired thinking into the much broader view of the spiritual world. The leaders from the human pecking orders won’t have much when judgment comes, but those at the bottom, odd, strange, different and peculiar have a much greater reward as this world dissolves away and a new earth and a new heaven is born. I’m grateful for my place at the bottom of this world’s pecking order, because my leader is not from this world, and does not want His children to fit into it or conform to it. 

 

 

As always, keep seeking. 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Psychopaths and Monsters

 (Author note: Another from the archives. I'm not sure if this has been published, unfortunately my archives are a complete mess and requires a lot of guess work. In my files it's simply titled Psychopaths, and I can't find a corresponding or closely worded title on any of my published lists. It was written in 2007 or 2008, and I removed some old links to dated political information.) 

 

 

 

I spend a lot of time reading opinions and attempting to unravel the mysteries of all the barriers we place between us. I recognize that folks are different and that is the beauty part of the beast, but we have been taught that down deep we all share similarities. The dictionary defines the soul as “The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity” and the spirit as “The vital principle or animating force within living beings”. I once asked some religious people for the difference between the spirit and the soul and none could provide an answer, but for me, I define the soul as that spark of light inside and our spirit determines whether or not the spark becomes a flame. 

 

From the time of our birth we are told we are all alike, the differences between us are only visual. Medicine and science also confirm this idea, although we are men and women, young and old, and come from a variety of cultures and religions, basically we are the same, but I have wondered if we really are all the same. Do we all have souls? Do some possess neither the spark nor the flame? I think that the difference between us is deep below the surface, unseen, and it has nothing to do with race, culture, religion, or gender, and has everything to do with either having that spark or not having it.  

 

Some have suggested that those in power, relentless executives and politicians making the rules for us all to live by are psychopaths, which Dr Robert Hare, creator of the psychopathy checklist, describes as "social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret." http://www.hare.org/  Often when we think of psychopaths we think of brutal criminals sitting in jail or receiving the death penalty for their unimaginable behaviors. And statistically we understand a lot of folks jailed for their criminal actions tend to come from poverty and abuse-ridden homes, but what happens to those young psychopaths born into grace and wealth?

 

John Lennon once said, “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.” And I think he was correct, we live in a psychopathic world and we are being trained to become a psychopathic population. I think the mistake many make when thinking about psychopaths is we envision that they are sinister, murderous, and television has done a fine job of teaching us that they usually get caught. But the truth is psychopaths are charming, cold-blooded, superficial, and I am beginning to understand lacking both the spark and the flame. They are the movers, shakers, and climbers of the world, carelessly seeking their own agenda, while around them those with simple goals, conscience, and who feel compassion and empathy for their fellow man fall and flail and flounder. 

 

They hold power over us because we believe we are all the same, we believe we all possess the same emotions, so it is hard to imagine a view without those connections. I am coming to the conclusion that we do not all have the spark of light and for many who still do in these days of old, it is sputtering. This darkness is not a new thing on this earth, history and legends have always attempted to explain the lack and left us clues in scary stories of monsters, devils, aliens, zombies, and vampires. But what has been lost in translation is that on the surface those monsters look just like us, the calculating beast resides deep below what we are able to see. And because our lack of knowledge has made us blind, we follow the boogey men and our spark begins to sputter and die.

 

The psychopaths and monsters have taken over and they have convinced us that their way, full of lies and deceit, is the truth. And we believe because we cannot imagine that some folks are completely empty inside. They keep us distracted with work, sex, and fancy gadgets, and sooth us with convenient drugs. We quickly learn if we work very hard we can find God and our mansion, which can only be bought with lots of money.  We spend hours watching their magical and hypnotic box as they instruct us in the way we should go. We hand over our children earlier and earlier with each passing generation and then wonder why our children begin to grow to see us as the enemy. We, who carry the spark inside of us, are being conquered, divided, deceived, and extinguished at an unbelievable rate.

 

It seems we have come to believe that if it is not on television, then it is not the truth, as if those attempting to deceive us are going to tell us the truth. The television, and then the Internet, has been the evil-doers greatest success in molding a human, tearing down the moral fiber, dumbing down the population, and creating a sense of apathy, fear, division, and sedation among the people. Do we really believe that they, the ones without spark or flame, are going to inform us that our flame is in the process of being extinguished? How can we understand we are living in deception, yet accept that deception as truth?

 

With all the chaos occurring in our world, I wonder how many understand that underneath the chaos a spiritual battle is being waged. In these modern times, it is easy to believe that what is occurring is just a product of advanced civilization, a sign of the times of living in a terrorist era or a technological age, but the battle being fought under the surface is as old as time. A wise man once said that the path is a narrow one and as I look about the world and see how easily we have accepted the training to surrender our spark and accept this psychopathic way of being as normal, I understand that man spoke truth.   

 

As always, keep seeking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

(Author note: I'm back in the archives and will be in there for a while as the 20th anniversary of Turtle's Voice grows nearer. This article was published in The American Chronicle on 1/16/08 under the title of The War on Thought and Individualism. I've removed the links because there are all dead now, lots of things have disappeared off the Internet in the last couple decades. This article is a little dated as hardly anyone relies on newspapers for information these days, but it's definitely worth sharing again.)  

 

 

 

What is truth?  Is it only what appears on the cable news networks, the national evening news or in the mainstream newspapers?  Does truth only become truth when it is checked and approved and then put before the masses?  What if that approved truth doesn’t answer all the questions or perhaps even raises new ones, is it still the truth?  And what about those people with the lingering doubts over the official story, are they insane or just troublemakers?

 

President Bush, in a speech before the United Nations on November 11^th, 2001, said, “Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty.”  I didn’t hear this speech when it was made and at the time I fully believed what the television had shown me, but had I heard his words I would have sought out information on the conspiracy theories he mentioned because I’m a curious person.  Perhaps being curious isn’t very popular today, perhaps curiosity is a threat. People tend to label and categorize, I suppose it makes us feel secure and a lot of people believe that conspiracy theorists are crazy, ill informed or even potentially dangerous, but what if they just like things to make sense? 

 

I think one of my greatest downfalls in this life is that I expect things to make sense, I like to understand the rhyme and reason of things and to do that, I have to look at all possible explanations, not just one.  And I figure, mixed up in all those ideas and propaganda, the truth can be found.  But I fear that a day will come when curiosity is no longer tolerated, and thinking outside of the approved box will no longer be permitted. 

 

In 2004 issue of Psychology Today, Kathleen McGowan has written an article entitled “Conspiracy Theories Explained” and the subtitle states, “Random events are deeply meaningful to paranoid schizophrenics. Is something happening in their brains?”  The article begins, “Paranoid schizophrenics are prone to delusions, tales in which random events become deeply meaningful. Some believe in complex conspiracies; others think they are Jesus Christ.”  And then it continues to explain the research of Shitij Kapur, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and vice president of research at the Canadian Center for Addiction and Mental Health, in relation to the role of dopamine in addiction and schizophrenia.  The body of the article does not mention conspiracy theories again, but the implication is pretty clear, people who question the official line are paranoid schizophrenics. 

 

The definition of conspiracy is an agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act and conspiracies are as old as mankind.  On the lighter side of conspiracy we have practical jokes and high school pranks, on the darker side we have events like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. And in it’s most accepted form we see it in business as one corporation plots to overtake another, but we don’t call that conspiracy, that is considered ‘just business’. 

 

It’s interesting to me how we often hear of the little guy being arrested for suspicion of committing conspiracy, but somehow we believe that when large groups of powerful people unite there can be no conspiracy.  Even presidential candidate and former first lady, Hillary Clinton, claimed the idea of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” to defend her husband Bill during the Whitewater scandal, so am I to assume that she is a paranoid schizophrenic? 

 

Am I to assume that anyone who believes that conspiracies exist may be insane?  Would that include Woodrow Wilson, who stated, “A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.”  Or James Madison, who said, "History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance".  Or Winston Churchill, who stated his believe that, “Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.”  Even the Bible points out that those in power will conspire in Eph. 6:12,  “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].”

 

Conspiracies do exist, but not all conspiracy theories are truth, although many make for quite an entertaining read, true or not.  So what are we left to think when our leaders, both past and present, have spoken of conspiracy as an actual issue in society and government, but the psychiatric community sees it as delusional thinking?  Could it be that the psychiatric community is far more concerned about social control, easily counted bean drawers, and power than it is about mental health and truth?  Could the hand holding between the pharmaceutical companies and the psychiatric communities be a conspiracy to keep Americans compliant, consuming, and easily controlled?  Is the drugging of over 8 million American children with minimally tested psychotropic drugs considered ‘just business’?

 

Many speak of the war against terrorism and the war on drugs, but perhaps the only real battlefield exists here at home, the war waged against thought and individualism and the weapons of choice are psychiatry, propaganda, and pharmaceuticals.  The American Psychiatric Association is busily adding new entries into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), these additions aren’t developed through research or discovery of known pathology, but simply by member vote and some of the newest mental disorders include Social Phobia, Mathematics Disorder, Disorder of Written Expression and Reading Disorder.  At the rate the APA is going, soon no one in America will be considered sane and I am beginning to wonder if one day mental illness treatment will be mandatory, much like the vaccines for childhood illnesses are mandatory today.

 

The simple fact of the matter is that people think and perceive things differently due to a myriad of reasons, including upbringing, culture, and experience, and that used to be the beauty of being an American, but now it seems that the APA, in hand with other organizations, want to weed out those who are different and medicate them.  Is it because those differences imply mental illness?  Or could it be that those differences create money in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies, a solid customer base for the psychiatric communities, and a compliant citizenship for the rulers of the American government? 

 

 

As always, keep seeking.