Buckingham Palace

Authority and rulership

"The Queen is dead. Long live the King." I'm writing this blog post in the period of mourning Queen Elizabeth II, and in the aftermath of one of the most important milestones in the UK's history, and also in that of the world. The Queen was one of the world's most significant rulers and heads of state, having ruled for more than 70 years, and as such is a part of the identity of everyone in the UK and throughout the Commonwealth. With her death is a sense of loss felt by everyone in some way.

This sense of bereavement and loss, felt by so many personally, throws up an interesting question. Why do we need authority figures and rulers in our lives? What value is there in authority, in our personal beliefs, in ideology? Are we able to find any security, emotional or psychological, in authority? Why do we attach so much importance and significance to the authority we give to some people? Why do we place such an important value or attach such significance to some people, public figures, but not to other people?

The simple answer is no, there is no emotional or psychological security which can be gained or derived from belief in external authority and what can be described as domination culture. Of course when you're starting out in life, say in childhood and in your teens, some guidance and authority is necessary through social conditioning and education to give you some social awareness and insight as to how things work in society. But if you're in your early 20's or older instead of relying on external authority to tell you what to think and believe you really need to start focussing more on truth, discipline, your individual life experience, and start figuring out things for yourself.

The thorny issue of domination culture

The Queen's death in the UK throws up the thorny issue of domination culture and the ethics behind a human being or group of human beings having power and control over another human being or group of human beings. Many people are starting to voice their opposition to the monarchy but it's important to understand that this is not just about the monarchy and the Royal Family. The Royal family is just the cherry on top of the whole cake, there is also the system of government, the system of structural class divisions, the process of socialization, and the social and cultural values that people throughout the Anglosphere are taught to believe is normal.

But this is actually a global issue which affects people throughout the world. Just as you cannot separate the monarchy in the UK from its system of government, structured or layered system of social classes, all the other labels and social markers of identity and social and cultural values and beliefs, you cannot separate domination culture and belief in external authority from socialization, the Ego, self image and identity.

The Ego is the big mistake Mankind made several thousand years ago in believing that human beings are a special case, separate from their environment and other species in a period commonly known as the Fall of Man. This was when the Ego was developed by the fearful and the controlling to keep women in their place and through this oppress others on the basis of their sexuality, nationality, ethnic background and other social markers. Out of this we have domination culture and many different illusions and false beliefs such as separateness, continuity, cause and effect, self-improvement, permanence, and others which are in flat contradiction with the way the universe and Nature works.

Further reading

This is the subject of my latest book, titled 'The Invisible Prison' which is essentially about the different ways we create authority, ideologies and belief systems as a means of seeking security and acceptance from others in society.

In this book I give you an insight into domination culture and why we create authority and also why we are required to create and give authority as a way of developing an Ego, self-image and identity as a basic condition for living in society.

The Invisible Prison e-book intro