What is Oligarchical Collectivism?

It is all about information. What is oligarchical collectivism? Well, what is Patriotism?

    The Theory and Practice to Oligarchical Collectivism is the main source of inspiration for the volume in hand and its namesake. It is the title of what’s known as the book within the book in 1984, written by George Orwell. George’s 1984 is fiction, the volume in your hands is nonfiction.

    The book within the book is read by the main character of 1984, Winston Smith. It is an infamous book about the institutional monopolization of the fictional world, and is contraband. Winston is a typical worker in the regimented and institutionalized world of 1984 with an unusual job. Winston is employed at the state news office, the Ministry of Truth. His job is to make the bad news good and embellish good news and to do so he rewrites history. Winston begins to question the oligarchy he is controlled by, in part because it is his job to rewrite the story.

    1984 describes a world where every facet of life is controlled and institutionalized. The book within the book, The Theory and Practice to Oligarchical Collectivism, describes the institutional monopolization of entirety that individuals are made unaware of and how individuals can empower themselves to counter the exploitation, but Winston is not able to read its entirety before being imprisoned for reading and being in love.

    In 1984 there are three super powers at war; Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania. The sides shift, but the Ministry of Truth insists the enemy has never changed. In Oceania there are four classifications of people. The Inner Party is made up of exploitive controllers at the capstone of the pyramid. Below them, in the upper portion of the pyramid, is the Outer Party. They are the ardent supporters of the Inner Party. Below the Outer Party, at the base of the pyramid, reside the Proles. They are the vast majority, generally doing what they’re told and stuck, lacking opportunity. Hidden amongst them are the Brotherhood, the righteous rebels of 1984.

    The Theory and Practice to Oligarchical Collectivism, the book within the book, was originally written by Emmanuel Goldstein. Emmanuel (Emmanuel means god is with us, Goldstein means gold rock) was a scapegoat of the Inner Party, labeled a rebel of the Brotherhood and against the people. Everyone is convinced to hate Emmanuel and his book, as a terrorist and his seditious rant. The book within the book it is revealed, was adopted and at least partially rewritten by the Inner Party, ultimately it is unclear if the book within the book was Emmanuel’s words at all or if it was just an Inner Party fabrication. The book states that there are three kinds of people in the world; the High, the Middle and the Low. The fourth group, that is the likes of the Brotherhood, is apparently omitted.

    Winston Smith receives the book from an Inner Party authority figure named O’Brien. O’Brien is at first Winston’s provider, later he proves to be his captor. 1984 is an elaborate allegory of a war world where institutions seek control to the point of psychological takeover. The book within the book investigates slanted institutionalized global control and was rumored to offer solutions. However it was adopted and distorted by the Inner Party as a ploy to find dissenters. Perhaps at one time, in the fictitious past of 1984, the book within the book was real, but by the time Winston read it, it had been twisted by the Inner Party for their agenda. The Complete Patriot’s Guide to Oligarchical Collectivism is what the book within the book would be, in reality, before being flipped and twisted.

    I am an individual, lacking institutional representation. I am not in an inner party, outer party or brotherhood. Perhaps I am most similar to a Prole, a proletariat, a simple individual in the institutionalized war world. I am not like the fictional Emmanuel Goldstein, but I am more comparable to him than I am to O’Brien, or any other institutional authority.

    George Orwell was born in India, as Eric Arthur Blair. George Orwell was Eric Blair’s penname. Eric’s father worked for the British Government in India, where Eric eventually was a police officer for several years. His father’s work and his own employment were likely catalysts for his later political interest and insight.    

    I am Ethan Indigo Smith, an individual author caught up in, and questioning the world. The fictitious authority, the Inner Party in 1984 was unquestionable. Information, mainly lies, was distributed and unquestioningly acted on in the fictional world of 1984. In reality, no matter how reputable an individual or institution may be presenting information, they should always be questioned. In the twenty-first century, everything may be questioned. When information is available, it can be developed on through relevant questions. When information is unavailable and questions are unasked, stagnancy ensues, lies are probable, and people take ignorant action.

    I began writing this with questions. What is patriotism? Why are there widely different interpretations of patriotism? The dictionary definition is clear, but the interpretation sways far and wide. It is a simple and commonly used word; however there is no concrete understanding of its meaning.

    I found that there are many answers to every question and many subjects with twisted distorted interpretations. There are many subjects accepted as steady facts, but are actually incomplete and in flux. The term “Orwellian” has come to mean the misdirection or deletion or definition usually with insertion of euphemism for institutional purposes.

    I have no formal corporate, religious or government training and no higher education to speak of. I am simply a curious individual. I attended public schools in the U.S.A and learned in the classroom, but I learned to question on the streets, outside of institutions. Schools mostly taught me how to answer their questions; the streets taught me to ask my own. I was never scholastic, but I always had a question, aimed not at necessarily finding an answer, but provoking thought. The most useful thing I ever learned was not a fact or function, it was to question. Have no fear, look people into their eyes and question. Ignorance is excusable and temporary, if questions are asked. Questions get answers, sometimes many different answers, sometimes other reactions.

    Institutions would likely classify me as a dissenting Prole, useless to their mechanics, replaceable by countless. The Complete Patriot’s Guide to Oligarchical Collectivism has no angle, and few biases, other than the straight and obvious pro-individual stance.

    Partial and complete answers always present more questions. It is impossible to fully comprehend, and yet always possible to comprehend more. To some questioning oligarchical collectivism sounds like a curios endeavor, to others the idea of a dissident rebel. The distinction is apparent, not through the question asked, but of who is asked the question. A question is just a question until it’s posed to someone who has interest in the answer remaining limited in scope. Then curiosity becomes dissent.

   As a writer I have to contemplate to get the facts straight and in order get the facts straight I have to question and continue questioning. The Guide is not about me, I merely introduce myself as an individual. My story is irrelevant to further explanation of the story, our story.

    What is patriotism? In short, it’s support of liberty. The original patriots of the U.S.A. were architects of a system to provide liberty in a nation surrounded by exploitive institutions. The Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, or the trinity of liberty, outline and protect individual rights among institutions.

    Many define patriotism in nationalistic, martial and institutionalized terms. Patriotism is pro individual, concerned with liberty rather than nationality, the actual definition of patriotism is a combination of maternal and paternal sensibilities and could be accurately called matriotism rather than patriotism, for liberty encompasses all humanity not just select nationalities.

    When the trinity of liberty was first designed it was infiltrated by flawed tolerations of the time. Greed led to exploitation, slavery, and ultimately more war. Some of the nation’s founding powers insisted exploitation should be maintained, that only certain people were individuals with rights, namely wealthy, white males, but with tremendous foresight the original patriots also allowed the trinity of liberty to be alterable.

    In the past, the spark of liberty was rare and fleeting. The world has still never seen liberty for all, not even liberty for both sexes. Oligarchical collectivism to benefit the few is the standard. Past societies made it so free people were free to exploit those who were not free. The mind was perhaps so conditioned to separate “us and them” that one could not imagine giving “them” liberty. The trinity of liberty is not perfect, but permits progression.

    What is oligarchical collectivism? An oligarchy is defined as the few over the many. An oligarchy can be depicted as a pyramid. Oligarchical collectivism unifies control in pyramidal fashion among many institutions, or pyramid stones. Oligarchical collectivism is the conjoining of slanted institutions to enable their control and progress the exploitation of the many. Patriotism flattens oligarchical collectivism.

    People everywhere, unless inhibited by acquired tolerations, prefer liberty. The ideas of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights give people hope for liberty and opportunity all over the world. Why is there more opportunity in one place or another? Opportunity is not just a matter of resources; it is a matter of liberty.

    The concepts of the trinity of liberty allow for individual prosperity. The ideas also allow for wrongdoers. Many lofty notions have been left dusty on the trail in order to achieve one diabolical objective or another. Sometimes the same institution that promotes hospitality also promotes hostility, reasoning questions. The U.S.A. was founded on countering oligarchical collectivism, but is threatened by it.

    We are products of our environment. No matter how likeable or noticeable, our perception and cognition are all subject to information. Our physical composition is acquired by the environment of our ancestors and influenced by present conditions. The idea of nature versus nurture is moot. Such “either or” arguments result in the “us and them” mentality. Two polarized options tend to produce doublethink. The truth is that the environment, nature, nurtures all. The “either or” presentation limits perception.

    Everything is political, but first it’s biological. The natural elements constantly provide input, resulting in evolution. Information is constantly being processed. Information is inescapable. The physical and mental states are constantly molded by our environment. People are intertwined with the environment, physically and mentally.

    Presentation in polarization, as in the debate nature or nurture, may sound like a logical discussion, but it’s limited and limiting. The choice of nature or nurture merely has a nice ring to it. The only sensible answer is both. One or the other is hyper restrictive.

    Everything begins with information. Whether the information is truth, half-truth, fact, distorted fact, belief, opinion, lore, lie or joke is relevant. Yet the distinction is unknown unless questioned, otherwise it hits one the same. Information is compiled in many forms; cold statistics, hard facts, interpretation, common knowledge, secret code, and on and on. The commonality shared by all types of information is power. The withholding of information creates an imbalance, a slant, sourcing power. Information is potentially powerful in many ways, yet it is always powerful based on its availability.

    Opinion is derived from information. If one has incomplete information, one has incomplete opinion. People tend to consider and move forward with the attainment of new information, though, not everyone seeks to attain new information. Questioning is essential to liberty and practically instinctual to people. Those who do not seek to question go against their natural psychological inclination.

    Many refuse or refute pertinent information disagreeable to their perception, normally out of fear. Some misuse information and do not circulate it. When there is unequal dispersal of information there is normally an element seeking control.

    Everyone is entitled to have an amorphous opinion, changeable relative to new information. Logical change is okay and in all likelihood beneficial. Thankfully people normally question, adjust and proceed with new information, otherwise we would all be skipping around looking for pots of gold at the end of rainbows, and hoping, perchance, to catch sight of the Easter Bunny along the way.

    Practically everyone is capable of change, but there are many people who prefer to keep their beliefs immovable in concrete, ignoring or refuting information that would instigate change. If particular information runs contrary to belief, it is ignored or scorned just in case it would shake their worldview.

    Man is separated from monkey by questions concerning our environment. Perhaps human ancestors perched up on two feet and asked, “Why is that?” The human hand is powerful tool, but only in combination with thoughtfulness. The truth changes, it was true at one time that you did not read this. The truth sways, as does the perception of it.

    Established scientific theory states that the Earth is roughly four and a half billion years old and that the universe is fourteen billion years old. Many believe the Earth is only a few thousand years old. Science and evolution may be orchestrated by God’s hands and not separate from them. Perhaps God manifested the laws of science on a whim and snapped all of creation into being in six days, six days God time, which apparently, was billions of years here on Earth. People number days and nights, God is timeless. People cannot interpret God or universal creation wholly, that would be holy.

    Beliefs stem from certain information. People make educated guesses, hypotheses and conclusions based on information of all sorts. New information leads to new conclusions, with everyone, whether the information is true or not, is important, but falsehoods lead to conclusion too. This is why people personally change over a lifetime, and society develops over lifetimes – new information leads to new conclusions. Acceptance of information precedes transcendence of it, further skeptical questioning eliminates falsehoods.

    Insects and reptiles behave like programmed computers, regardless of experience. Most mammals behave like computers programmed by experience. People are capable of understanding and surpassing the biological and political programming through questioning.

    People are able to interact with information without extreme bias. To be unbiased one must question those presenting information, one’s own mindset, as well as the information presented. Questioning oneself often raises better questions of the situation. Better questions are more likely to prevent incomplete opinion derived from incomplete information. Incomplete information may be true, just not the whole truth. Incomplete information tends to lead to dead ends. No information should lead to a stopping point, there is always more to know.

    Today information travels at light speed. Information and interpretation is distributed by individuals and delivered by institutions, media corporations, and other authorities. Important information is mixed with irrelevant and it’s available everywhere.

    Perhaps, because of its sheer abundance, many people choose not to acquire new information. Most people don’t want to ask and they don’t want to know. On top of the overwhelming amount of information, much of it irrelevant, there is also abundant sensitive information. Information concerning actuality that is not pleasing, but is occurring, is constantly ignored. Willful ignorance is utilized to preserve one’s comfort zone in the status quo. Ignoring conditions and remaining ignorant is chosen so as to not have to face reality.

    Institutional representatives have biased responsibilities, which distort how they proceed with information. They pick which information to contemplate and which to ignore. Institutions are not individuals, yet they have opinions, promote opinions and are awarded some of the same rights as individuals, but have no heart and are not alive. Individuals breathe air and drink water, institutions do not. Institutional interpretation of information is limited to its pertinence to their agenda.

    Institutions present information through press releases and advertisements. It is often incomplete and jumbled and it’s predominantly spin, their side of the story. Institutional agenda normally has little to do with the primordial concerns of individuals, such as clean air and water.

    Institutions recognize institutions. Individuals remain outside of their scope, unconsidered other than as various statistical masses. Institutions have complex goals which are inflexible to basic individual interests. Institutions ignore individuals until enough counter their rigidity, cracking their institutional framework. Institutions either crumble or bend to the individual will and always try to ignore people.

    Included in The Complete Patriot’s Guide is factual information. Not included: all of the facts.

    No one has all the facts. Even experts fall short of complete knowledge, while time also disintegrates most expertise. Things change. We all have some information commonly agreed upon, and we work from there. All the facts would require too vast a mind and constant update. There is just too much information available. And yet this is not the primary reason we do not have all the facts, the primary reason we do not have all the facts, is we are not allowed all the facts.

    The withholding of information; half-stories, part-truths, mistruths, omissions, misinformation, and outright lies, cast and support opinion. The factual and reasonable are sometimes exalted and sometimes quieted to support opinion and belief. Institutions and individuals use information. In conducting research for the Guide, I learned one can find ‘facts’ to back up any belief, so I offer no resources. Check the information in the Guide because that’s the first step to truth, but don’t just question this, question it all. Sometimes essay, and even mathematics may sound correct, but no matter the content or source, information deserves to be questioned. All relevant information should be questioned and all questions should be encouraged. If individuals or institutions do not promote questions, they are likely hiding something.

    If the unsourced information provided in the Guide is unbelievable, question it. Check the information, for the numbers may change and may have been previously distorted before I scribed them. I promise that I triple-checked the information, but I also admit that I might have been lied to and being human, I make mistakes. Question this and continue questioning information, including and especially information delivered by institutions.

    What sounds right may be, but may be wrong. Remember, just because something is true doesn’t make it the entire truth.

    To persevere in researching in an openly curious manner, without the weight of prior information, leads to better knowledge. Progression is halted with assumptions of complete information. In researching any subject, there are always many versions of the story. These stories are numerous in variation, but often are presented as being on one of two sides, two extremes. Like two sides of a coin, one side represents the extreme of one set of opinions and the other side represents the extreme opposition. Institutions prefer situations be in polarization, like the two party system in the U.S.A.

    The truth is sometimes an amalgamation of two opposing ideas. The truth often resides as the third side of the coin, the curvature, the ring and edge of the coin, often in coexistence with opposites. Sometimes the truth remains hidden inside the metal itself, but mostly is on that fine line. Truth is usually distinct from the major oppositions, but of both.

    Historical fact becomes jaded by people’s opinions. Even current events recorded with an arbitrary camera are interpreted and presented differently by one extreme or the other. The names of people and places are lost, changed, stolen and stomped out. There are many sides, perhaps because there are many lies.

    Sometimes information is presented in a way, that to those with differing information, it seems distorted, resembling an outright lie. Opposite sides may be part of the same coin, the same truth. The ring or edge of a coin might hold the truth and at times, an alternative coin might be truth. Sometimes people lie or are misled and adopt one side of the coin or another, partial truth taken as the whole truth. Some people base their opinion on a fraction of what they know of entirety.

    Most milk is more product than nutrient. Milk has little nutritional value to most adult mammals. If scientists observed another animal that sought out the milk of a different creature throughout adult life, they would describe this as strange behavior, maybe a sign of immaturity. Politically speaking milk is for institutions, biologically it is for babies.

    Do not take the word of an admitted tea drinking derelict, but moreover, no matter what, no matter the situation or trusted voice never let institutions present unquestioned information. Question this, but remember that most individuals normally have little reason to lie, whereas intertwined institutions and institutionalized individuals on the other hand, have an outrageous assortment of reasons to lie.

    If fluoride is administered to the water supply to benefit our dental health, why stop there? More importantly, why start there? Why not add calcium and zinc to the water supply? Calcium derived from kale or some other leafy green vegetable? The reason your dentist tells you to rinse and, most importantly, spit out fluoride, is because it’s an accumulative poison which only works topically.   

    The reason milk from cows has calcium in it is because they graze on greens all day long. The reason people generally lose the ability to digest milk is because milk is for babies. People need calcium every day, but the natural mammalian cycle does not include milk throughout adult life. 

    There is always more to the truth than one side or another. The milk from cows may be good occasionally, a spot with tea maybe, but there are better sources of calcium. Fluoride may be beneficial when used topically, but there are less toxic ways to protect the pearly whites than adding it to drinking water. In order to observe with an open mind let go of predispositions.  Is it not perverse to raise animals for milk which is cooked so it will be safe to ship far and wide? Is it not suspect to include poison in municipal water?

    Contrasting information can be divisive. Some will sense that one side or the other must be completely wrong or completely lying, but usually truth, the whole truth is an amalgamation, sometimes of seemingly opposing ideas. If only presented with one side of the facts, the other side and the truth remains unseen. Reputable institutions might speak the truth and still be lying by omission, often telling only part of the story, that part that works for them.  

    Old oligarchical European institutions conquered the world brutally and killed any who stood in their way. They were headhunters and scalpers and only recognized one another. The oligarchical institutions worked amongst and against each other, and others were simply unrecognized and mostly vanquished. They attempted to monopolize the world, much like the warring states depicted in 1984.  

    The violent worldwide conquest and institutional exploitation is known as Colonialism. Eventually the Colonies in the U.S.A. retaliated and after the original patriots defeated the British Empire, George Washington could have been king. Instead he installed elections. Alexander Hamilton arranged for George to be king of a new country, but George declined; he served as president for two terms and then returned to his farm.

    The same old empirical mind state that was abandoned by some was adopted by others in the new U.S.A., who did their best to institute exploitation. Freedom was instituted for some, while many others were openly stomped on. The land of the free had qualifications and stipulations for freedom, mostly based on racial distinctions. Freedom is not liberty. Liberty has no such qualifications.

    They were stuck in their oligarchical ways and relegated those with high quantities of melanin to a low level of exploitation and slavery. Because American Indian and African people were easily distinguished as a “them” among an “us” they were enslaved, killed and treated as property.

    The story goes that prior to the rebellion, many enslaved Pomo people died from starvation, others perished from beatings and a few died simply out of fear of their captors. The Pomo people were brutally enslaved, exploited and like the rest of the native people from Cuba to California, and from Canada to Chile, violently obliterated. The Pomo people hardly knew violence until the arrival of institutions. They lived in a land of plenty, where art took precedence over war. The Pomo survived Colonialism, many peoples in the Americas and around the world did not.

    Captain Nathaniel Lyon was the leading officer dispatched to find the Pomo slaves who rose up and fought their oppression. Upon failing to find them, he ordered an attack on a neighboring peaceful village, killing all who they came across. Supposedly, the unit continued their savagery afterwards on random native peoples as they returned from the mission, this is not confirmed. Nathaniel would go on to lead at least one other documented massacre during the Civil War. He later died in combat, fighting for the Union. The U.S.A. Congress passed a resolution of thanks to his “eminent and patriotic services.”

    The Pomo people were treated inhumanely and retaliated against enslavement, starvation, beatings, rape and systematic abuse. Innocent, neighboring men, women and children were then murdered by the U.S.A. Army as punishment for the rebellion. As unrecognized individuals in a new world of institutions, the Pomo were treated in an inhumane fashion. They were run over and looked upon as less than, and a “them.” This is considered to be the first of many massacres of innocent natives by the newly formed U.S.A. Army.

    In the early days of California, the government compensated the expenses of hunting forays for Indian slaves with one million dollars from Washington, DC. Anyone could engage in private military missions to gather native slaves and was guaranteed reimbursement. This was the exact type of duplicity practiced by all empires before; some had freedom over others. Freedom is a free-for-all, while liberty is indiscriminate for all.

    Ultimately, the U.S.A. evolved. The trinity of liberty allows for progression, but institutions promoted and individuals participated in the most heinous genocide and land theft ever. Sometimes the provider is the captor. People have progressed and developed liberty, but liberty is for all and when it is not given to all, it benefits the few today still. Individuals expand liberty, institutions initiate the “us and them” mentality based on perception and not truth in order to limit individual liberty. These perceptions are institutionalized and used primarily for gains of strangers.

    In 1984 there are four types of people, based largely on social rank. There are the proles, the outer party, the inner party and the brotherhood. In reality there are four types of people understood according to our reaction to information. Idiots do not question substance or relevance. Zealots question in line and in accordance. Elitists question in order to advance power and finance. Patriots question curiously and openly, often enough in prevention of exploitation.  

About Ethan Indigo Smith:

Activist, author and Tai Chi teacher Ethan Indigo Smith was born on a farm in Maine and lived in Manhattan for a number of years before migrating west to Mendocino, California. Guided by a keen sense of integrity and humanity, Ethan’s work is both deeply connected and extremely insightful, blending philosophy, politics, activism, spirituality, meditation and a unique sense of humour.

The events of September 11, 2001 inspired him to write his first book, The Complete Patriot’s Guide to Oligarchical Collectivism, an insightful exploration of history, philosophy and contemporary politics. His more recent publications include:

• Tibetan Fusion a book of simple meditative practices and movements that can help you access and balance your energy
• The Little Green Book of Revolution an inspirational book based on ideas of peaceful revolution, historical activism and caring for the Earth like Native Americans

For more information, visit Ethan on Facebook and check out Ethan’s author page on Amazon.