Subjugation is heredity
This is concerning, as I was analyzing a text that delves into human behavior regarding subjugation. It highlights how, throughout history, humanity has been subtly manipulated into maintaining unwavering loyalty to the upper class. While loyalty itself is an interesting concept worthy of deeper exploration, perhaps another time, I want to focus on the more insidious theme of domination and how we continuously find ourselves trapped within it.
It all started after I finished reading 1984 by George, Orwell. The book is powerful, and it raises a haunting question like what policies could truly reshape the mentality of our world? As a communist sympathizer, I have often thought that Communism should have had a genuine chance to prove itself. Sadly, no one, not even those who claimed to believe in it, allowed it to survive. Orwell, however, presents an essential warning on how quickly communism, when corrupted, can devolve into authoritarianism. This idea is disturbing because it all hinges on one fragile concept: loyalty. Big Brother, the symbol of total power, demanded not mere obedience but love from his people, just as all who seek control do.
Leadership has long been confused with governance, and governance with reigning. This creates a perpetual illusion where people forget that ruling and leading are not the same thing. From the dawn of civilization, governments have exploited this confusion, treating citizens as subjects, as if they exist only to be ruled. The system thrives on obedience, and we participate in it without realizing how deeply it shapes us.
The concept of Comitatus, an early Anglo-Saxon tradition, was built entirely on unwavering loyalty. Soldiers were expected to avenge their leader’s death or die trying. Their lives were expendable, their worth determined by their devotion to authority. Even in those early times, the foundation of power rested on emotional manipulation and convincing people that death in service of another’s power was honorable.
History repeats this pattern endlessly. From Feudalism to the Bushido Code of the Samurai in Japan, loyalty became the perfect instrument of control. People were promised protection in exchange for submission. The rulers gained authority, and the ruled gained illusion, a comforting sense of belonging and purpose that masked their servitude.
In the modern world, the same mechanism survives under a different name and that’s patriotism. On the surface, it seems noble: love for one’s country, unity, shared identity. But beneath that ideal lies a familiar danger. Patriotism, too, can be wielded as a weapon of subjugation. It blinds citizens to injustice, turning critique into treason. It convinces people to defend systems that exploit them simply because those systems wave a flag. The emotional attachment to one’s birthplace is natural, but when leaders twist that attachment into hostility towards others, it becomes dangerous.
We have seen how this works across borders and ideologies. When citizens are told to fear or hate those born elsewhere, it is not nationalism, it is manipulation. It is the same pattern that has existed for centuries: the powerful shaping thought, emotion, and identity to maintain their dominance. From ancient empires to modern democracies, this manipulation persists, disguised in new forms but driven by the same motive, and that is to control.
In this endless cycle, individuals become pawns in a game they do not even realize they are part of. Whether it is patriotic pride, corporate loyalty, or political allegiance, the emotion of belonging becomes the leash that keeps people aligned. Those in power no longer need to enforce obedience with force; they only need to convince people that obedience is virtue.
Breaking free from this cycle is not easy. It demands critical introspection, an uncomfortable confrontation with everything we’ve been taught to admire. To question loyalty itself feels like betrayal, but perhaps that is the very reason we must. It is only through questioning that we can start to dismantle these internalized hierarchies and imagine a society built not on obedience but on equality and awareness.
And yet, even as I write this, I find it difficult to define what freedom truly is. We use the word casually, like it is something we possess. But what is freedom if it is handed to us by the same structures that limit us? Heard it somewhere once, “freedom is not merely buying your favorite toothpaste.” It stuck with me. Because if that is what we have reduced freedom to, a market choice, a brand preference and then maybe we have never really known it at all. Maybe freedom begins where manipulation ends.
