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Long after the apocalypse, the beings that will roam the face of the earth may speak stories about a species that once practised the art of subjugation. The method by which they created history amongst themselves over thousands of years. This will perhaps be the story told to their children about a species called human beings that became extinct centuries ago.
Maybe their archaeologist might dig up an atom bomb that went unexploded during our end times. We can only pray that they will not tamper with that specimen for their own good. Hope they will only be interested in our art of subjugation.
The levels of subjugation more or less seem to be practised in a similar manner over the entire history of our existence. But by the ways of cultural practices or moral interpretation or by propaganda, each of its effects was realised much later than when it happened.
History tells stories more about war than peace, signifying how much the level of subjugation is celebrated in our psyche by way of knowing the past. Be it the “mowing of generations” by the Romans, Mongols, Hans, with personalities like Alexander, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler and the orchestration of the infamous wars like the Kalinga, Gallic, World War I/II and the recent bloodiest Congo war, has seen deaths to the levels unimaginable.
All tell tales of geographies conquered as a result of the “Art of Subjugation”. These were done at scales never understood by the subsequent generations. The end result is seen as nothing less than obliteration.
Scaled down, the same art was practised at the societal levels as well. Here, the rules changed at the level of individuals, making them practice certain rules every day, the rules that will prepare them psychologically to be subjugated. They are made to practice everything with a greater degree of restrictions. This, over a period of generations, will make way for any resistance, accepting the restricted freedom as part of their life.
While one is physical in nature, the other is psychological. The influence of the former has a limited time span, while the latter spans centuries. However, only the former can make us extinct.
When we are speaking about this art, it’s better not to speak about its morality, whether it’s good or bad, whether there is room for its justification doesn’t matter. Because humans, either way , will find ways to practice this art of subjugation.
It is not easy to practice this art; it takes a lot of preparation, be it war or societal restrictions. Both need support from some part of society, if not all. And without local support, no nation can wage war against another nation or within itself. This needs propaganda to make people accept the decision taken at the highest levels of the leadership. In olden times, religion held a grip on society, and so does propaganda make use of that means. We now know that an information war can play a role in war. Even at the societal level, it’s done by creating narratives that can influence the minds of the people. Of course, it does not mean the narration has to be true.
Generating narration is defined by Goebbels’ theorem of transforming falsehood to truth. Narration cannot be manufactured but can be transformed from one form to another. It’s based on the fact that repeated utterances can transform a falsehood into truth. Here, the truth is not in terms of its absolute facts, but the acceptance it gets from society.
These are the three laws of subjugation. Manufacture narration by way of propaganda, make people accept it and finally make them practice or propagate it.
With the art of subjugation, we are made hostages of someone’s whims and fancies.
Present day, a war is half won if you can win the minds of the people. Even if a nation is about to win a war, if propaganda can make the soldiers think that they are about to lose, this can possibly change the fate of the war itself.
The nation that will be successful in creating narrations and making people practice will be more influential than ever in history. Moving from being physical hostages to being hostages of mind games that are more powerful, which can span continents, can make the art of subjugation very effective and faster to achieve, with wider coverage.
The art of subjugation will be the one characteristic that might be fascinating for other species when they learn about our history. And maybe this will be the one reason they will conclude that we became extinct.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.