Our personal psychology is largely determined by the fact that we are born into a hierarchy.
What does it mean when an agitator, a gadfly, is told "you are just trying to attract attention to yourself"?
Think about it. The whole idea of having influence in society is premised on being recognized. The whole idea of increasing one's influence is to be more recognized.
The entire political dimension of the person is the possibility of practicing one's influence on the community and on society at large.
Why else does the artist art? Why does the worker work if it is not to meaningfully contribute? Agency over one's life and opportunity to influence community (including the workplace!) are the basis of a meaningful life.
But a hierarchy will have none of it. You must be dedicated to preserving the hierarchy and your place within the hierarchy. The cardinal rules in a hierarchy are know your place, keep or improve your place, and kiss ass.
In light of who says it and why, in light of how the agitator is disturbing to others, I think it is clear:
"He/she is just trying to attract attention."
means
"He/she does not know his/her place."
... is not following convention, is not following the rules, is disregarding taboos, is not making valid and central points, is not disturbing us, is not having an influence, should not be taken seriously, etc.
The "you are just trying to attract attention to yourself" is hierarchy maintenance talk meant to neutralize the threat; by appeal to the pathological notion of self-sacrifice in service and obedience to a human hierarchy.
In using hierarchy against itself, it is a viable tactic to do it publicly in order to protect oneself with visibility. In disturbing the psychological reinforcements of hierarchy, one has to expect a hierarchy-preserving backlash.
Sustained disruption can create the circumstances wherein foundational criticism can be received. It's the only thing that ever does.
Thank you for the compliment.
3 comments:
So many people complain about those who dare to call attention to themselves through writing or publishing (blog or otherwise). I could not understand that at all--why people would be actually angry with others for daring to speak their minds--but you've explained it! The social hierarchy is disrupted when the minions don't just put up and shut up.
Thanks for putting that into words! Hope you don't get shit for daring to speak the truth (but of course you will).
There IS a way to influence without bringing attention to yourself: Subliminal communication and/or communicating almost anonymously, by being so spontaneous that "you" communicate "as if" you are free from any identity!
PS thanks for posting my article on RSN.org @ a class action law suit to refund higher educatin tuition with interest. Latest publication is a demand for a US federal invesigation into whether most of Higher Ed, (especially re: student loan aspects) is infiltrated with RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizationa)elements, etc.
There may be a way to communicate without getting external attention: by communicating subliminally and or by communicating in away that is so spontaneous (i.e., being free from ANY identity even that of "anonymity") that what what you are saying is a kind of communication that is without ego, drama, and/or any agenda i.e., when, if, what you are saying is even a surprise to yourself, almost like a "stream of consciousness" improv communication, etc.
PS
Thanks for posting an article on FB that is similar to the one below.
Student Loans: the Next (Intellectual) Property Scam Because Higher Education IS Equivalent to Banksters! by Barbara Todish
Sunday, 01 January 2012 20:20
Higher education is, and has been for some time, a RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations) conspiracy! We need a federal investigation because student loan monies constitute a repeat of what the mortgage crisis was and still is. Instead of having real property mortgages, students were and are being manipulated into going into student loan slavery debt for the false intellectual "property" of a worthless college degree!
Before all of law is seen for what it truly is, namely F-LAW, (the 1% Wizard/esse(s) of Oz, behind a curtain of F-LAW), let's use the F-LAW! Let's demand a federal investigation into student loans. Even those of us who learned a skill, medical, dental, nursing, engineering, etc., were and still are bullied into mindless, negative sheeple performance of that skill so that instead of doing the doctoring, the nursing, the engineering, etc., the doctoring, etc., does us!
It is accepted among academics, though spoken in secret due to fear of reprisals, and academic mobbing, that higher education only cares about students for the student loan money they can get. Student loan money is what drives all of higher education. Student loans are paying for high school "redux", and higher education is quickly becoming less than even that.
There is zero critical thinking going on, and teaching to the test, assessment, etc., is double mind speak for indoctrinate the student to conform, accept authority, consume, especially consume higher education and make student loans, and learn to speak in academic jargon so you are unable to even understand yourself! (Shades of "They Live!" the so called "subversive" classic film that came close to being banned and still is hard to see anywhere in it's entirety!) Of course those that deny this will shout their defensive objections, and just their defensiveness proves the point, namely that there is mis to dis education in lieu of an authentic education that enables us to think for ourselves.
Let's get these universities and colleges to be seen for the agents of banksters, and agents of the 1%(NWO-military-government-industrial-corporation-institution-family-croney) racketeer influenced corrupt organization-dynasty that they are!
Only when we risk to be spontaneously subliminal do we even approach having agency and intention, all else is a limited performance of the drama and ego that is the illusion of agency and intention! So join in the process of beginning to reveal the F-LAW that is our higher education by showing support for a federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt organizations) investigation of all of US higher Education, etc.,
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