Lately, I have gotten more comfortable with calling myself a ‘white supremacist patriarch.’ I do this as a way to make myself comfortable with dismantling delusion. Like all white men, white supremacist patriarchy is a delusion that uses me to perpetuate it. To perpetuate no matter how little it actually benefits us. It is an indoctrination that makes our ego the most valuable social currency.
We will defend it to the death because ego is all we have left after it strips us. Strips us of our family, money, and basic sense of dignity. Anyone who is not a white man already knows this about their relationship with white supremacist patriarchy. The only difference is they are not entitled to have an ego like us.
Lately, I’ve been contemplating the idea of what I’ve started to call ‘dogmatic literalism.’ As I explore my personal relationship with god, people who are dogmatic in their religious practice unconsciously dismiss me. With dogma and religion, it’s their way or the highway. It is unfathomable to be a servant of god without religion. Not unless I am a servant of god of their religion. Some are not as picky, as long as I am a servant of god of any religion.
Dogmatic Literalism
This idea of dogmatic literalism is simply a generalization of biblical literalism. An example of Biblical literalism is Adam and Eve being real people, the only humans that exist, that Adam actually sacrificed his rib to make Eve, that Eve was seduced by a real talking snake into eating an apple. It’s an interpretation of scripture that fails to apply an interpretation that very clearly requires an understanding and application of metaphor.
The core nature of reality is like a song. Religions and their teachings are simply remixes of that song. Anyone can hear the original. All they need to do is listen.
Let’s take the most god-lite religion we know about. Twelve step programs. My suggestion of dogmatic literalism is that Al-Anon, a 12-step program – a religion, requires one to go to Al-Anon meetings and to read the Al-Anon book to have any hope of living harmoniously with someone that is in a relationship with an alcoholic, drug abuser, etc. Yet, it is just a religion. Another iteration of teaching someone the core nature of reality. The core nature of reality is like a song. Religions and their teachings are simply remixes of that song. Anyone can hear the original. All they need to do is listen.
When a religious person suggests that my relationship with god is invalid because I didn’t use religion to find it (god), it is not helpful. They think they are being helpful. But, all it does is expose themselves as dogmatic. Dogma prevents one from seeing a road parallel to their’s. I let go of that, but it makes me sad because being dogmatic can have negative health and social consequences. I empathize with the fact that they potentially hinder and harm themselves through dogmatism.
There are many studies about the negative health and social consequences of dogmatism. Here are a couple:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28435818/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33214149/
White Supremacist Patriarchy
Dogmatism is one of many forms of indoctrination. Dogmatism is quite powerful because it internalizes indoctrination much deeper than traditional forms of indoctrination. Indoctrination is, of course, a social and cultural toolset to make a person behave a certain way through all sorts of social manipulation. The white supremacist patriarchy is an excellent example of it because it still exists today and has been pervasive for centuries.
In the end, it is all lies. Delusion. A delusion is mostly just a lie that you believe. A fabrication of reality that you have made real for yourself. This can happen as a natural protection mechanism of your brain. In schizophrenic people, that protective mechanism goes haywire.
I have spent almost my entire life sorting through delusion. I did it because it’s a symptom of schizophrenia. But somewhere along the line, I accidentally started dismantling societal delusions inside of myself because I confused them for being psychotic delusions. After over two years of doing this, I’m starting to feel like I’ve become a literal example of Akira Kurosawa’s line from Ran:
• 狂った今の世で気が狂うなら気は確かだ
• English: in a mad world, only the mad are sane
I don’t have any conclusion to this writing. Just sharing my observations in this moment. Thanks for reading.
