The Subject and Power: Subjugation in the era of 21st century Android and drone technology

Updated: January 28, 2021 06:29 AM EST

Tags: Technology-Facilitated Violence, Subjection, Subjugation, Coercive Control, Social Injustice, Social Inequality, Power, Domination, Social Control, Oppression, Silence, Denial, Cyber Crime, Cyber Misbehavior, Electronic Torture, Electronic Harassment, Electronic Targeting, Targeted Individuals, Electromagnetic Frequency, Radio Waves

To gain an appreciation on how the “Subject and Power” operate (a nod to Michael Foucault), particularly within the realm of the global social order you have to first begin to ask yourself how marginalized groups have been utilized, in particular, those deemed less valuable or “worthless” or those feared like the homosexual or the “psychopath” by those in positions of control and power, and by “those in positions of control and power”, I mean people like; doctors, lawyers, politicians, those in administrative judicial positions, teachers, the military, etc. And by marginalized groups; I mean female black slaves, black male sharecroppers and their families, women, the disabled, children, the mentally ill, the Jews during the Holocaust, those found in the lower class subdivisions. First, the government exploits young men and women from disadvantaged upbringings by offering them positions in the military. Why? Because of the “untamed sexual instincts of the lower classes” that cause “incompetent mating and/or pairing” with a “larger number of offspring” within those subdivisions of class. You’ll never see a military recruitment office on the grounds of Harvard or Yale Universities. Why? In a comment that has been rescinded, university administrators have said, “There is no need for a recruitment office on the grounds of our campus.” This is because with a Harvard or Yale degree a young man or woman doesn’t have to sell themselves into the hands of the Devil, risking life and limb to earn income and provide for their families. Hearing this comment from Harvard’s school administrator, at least for me, drew a stark defined line in the sand between the “haves” and “haves not”. Those that rule and those that do not.

Money is the God that rules the global social order whether you realize it or not. In particular, capitalistic markets have always strived to drive competition, innovation, and invention in order to create new market economies that strengthen the American economy. Big pharma is one of those markets. Technology is another. Medicine’s dependency on technology is growing at an ever-alarming rate and test subjects, sometimes scarce, historically were found among the human fodder of the lower classes. Human beings are seen as commodities, but not just by misogynistic men and criminal sex traffickers. They are seen as commodities by both the federal government with their military soldiers and by those in experimental research programs who experiment on human test subjects. This is a historical fact. It is in man’s nature to be over-controlling, narcissistic, and sadistic. Historically speaking, women have suffered at the hands of powerful men, and in their socially defined roles, they have suffered immense pain and terrible consequences for any perceived deviations from what was expected of them. Nicole Loraux was a French historian of classical Athens. She wrote,

“Deaths represented on the stage, great suffering, wounds: events of tragedy, a spectacle. As one considers the examples given by Aristotle to support his definition of tragic pathos as “action causing destruction or suffering,” how can one possibly doubt that in the Athenian theater death was meant to be seen? Thanatoi en toi phaneroi: death agonies in public, a murder in front of everybody . . . As I reread Aristotle’s sentence, I am puzzled, and I realize that I should warn the reader that in these pages it is the listener to tragedy who will take precedence over the spectator, because everything comes to us through words. Everything happens in words, and this is particularly true of death (Loraux, 1991).”

Psychology and psychoanalysis have turned to ancient Greek classical literature to understand and interpret, from a psychological perspective, the tropes and themes of tragedy. Tropes and themes that sometimes involve War and Death. The human psyche represents a similar theatre stage. In every individual’s life, the characters are cast alongside one another and each character delivers their role. As the storylines unfold, characters that are not too unfamiliar to the ones cast in Shakespearian drama, comedy, and tragedy interact with the subject and they play out their history.

Philosophy and Reading Silence

In Loraux’s words, “…it is the listener to tragedy who will take precedence over the spectator, because everything comes to us through words.” This is, for the most part, true. However, I would substitute “words” for “language” because not all stories are told through the explicit written word, some stories come to us through the language of silence and denial. That is, in the absence of what can be directly spoken. That is, in the absence of vision. In the philosophy of silence, Jean-François Lyotard wrote:

“Language” has no exterior because it is not in space. But it can say space. It can say the body. It can say the body “says” something, that silence speaks (Lyotard, 1984; Lyotard, 1988).”

And this is true. We can understand the language of silence through metaphor and symbolism. In Philosophy and the Maternal Body: Reading silence, Michelle Boulous Walker discusses the philosophical problems with Louis Althusser writings, she quotes Monique Plaza, Ideology Against Women:

“. . .[Althusser] defends his social position as a man, which totally blinds him to the sex-class antagonisms and oppression in which he participates. This is far more a crime of theory against women than it is a crime of revisionism. The murder of a woman is within the continuum of the discursive negation of women. It is, perhaps the Althusserians would say, an ideology in action. In fact, I agree: ideology against women is not just a matter of words; it is also a matter of death (Walker, 1998, p.39).”

In reading with the eye, in the absence of what is not spoken, because non-vision is a form of vision and is inside vision, Althusser states, “to understand this necessary and paradoxical identity of non-vision and vision with vision itself . . . [in order] to make us see what the . . . text itself says while not saying it, does not say while saying it (Althusser, 1979) . . . This field organizes the possibilities of the text, as a field of vision and in so doing creates in this same gesture the field of non-vision or impossibility, the silences, and exclusions. What the problematic refuses becomes the repressed, unconscious of the text (Walker, 1998, p. 35).”

Poetics and metaphor

Part of the purpose for the study of psychoanalysis and of the study of history is to come to an understanding of various historical phenomena that have contributed to human pain and suffering. With the development of 21st-century technology, we observe the phenomena known as the Targeted Individual suffering from electromagnetic assaults and torture, that event is placed inside a field of non-vision, we need to read the text with the eye of non-vision instead of with the explicit word of vision because this phenomenon comes to use inside the field of the non-spoken word; the invisible. The approach to the analysis of electromagnetic assaults requires us to utilize the pivotal space within philosophy, constantly shifting our gaze from what is periodically visible and invisible, between what is explicitly said and what is symbolically rendered and unspoken. “Now this is not to say that it serves the same purpose as it does in Plato’s text [cave allegory] but rather that its presence signifies a tension in each, the point at which the text “divulges the undivulged event (Walker, 1998, p. 35)”

Speaking the Silence of the Undivulged Event

In a journal article entitled Subclinical Sadism and the Dark Triad published in the Journal of Individual Differences, researchers analyzed the prevalence of “everyday sadism” among a population of Canadian college students. Everyday sadism is also defined as “subclinical sadism,” which has been linked to the Dark Triad. Sadism refers to the dispositional tendency to engage in cruel, demeaning, or antagonistic behaviors for pleasure or subjugation (Plouffe, Saklofske, & Smith, 2017). Sadistic individuals take pleasure in causing or witnessing acts of cruelty, in which the suffering of others in itself is rewarding (Baumeister & Campbell, 1999; Plouffe et al., 2017). “Charbrol et al. (2009) observed that sadistic traits present in both the normal population as well as in clinical and criminal groups, suggesting that sadism is a dimensional personality trait that lies on a continuum.” In their study, sadism and psychopathy independently predicted delinquent and antisocial behaviors in adolescent boys, and the authors suggested that the underlying aggressive and impulsive tendencies of the high-sadism individual explain its stronger link with delinquency. They subsequently proposed that the “Dark Triad” should be expanded to include sadism and renamed the “Dark Tetrad.” As such, the objective of this study was to investigate the dimensionality of the Dark Tetrad and evaluate whether sadism is a unique, yet conceptually related construct of the Dark Triad traits.

The primary purpose of the research study was to investigate how sadism correlates with relevant personality constructs and distinguish sadism from other “dark” constructs and examine its relationships with broader personality traits. Construct validity for subclinical sadism was supported through negative correlations with agreeableness, honesty-humility, emotionality, and conscientiousness, which was consistent with other research findings (Johnson, Plouffe, & Saklofske, 2019).

Since subclinical sadism is a personality trait that exists on a continuum within the population, the researchers of the Dark Triad sadism study proposed that the “Dark Triad” be changed to the “Dark Tetrad.” This change would encompass three new facets that weren’t previously included in the Dark Triad: verbal sadism, physical sadism, and vicarious sadism. Verbal sadism involves humiliating and mocking others. Whereas physical sadism involves sadism addresses the desire for subjugation and enjoyment of hurting others, and vicarious sadism taps an indirect form of sadism where pleasure is obtained through observing or fantasizing about violence. While sadism, psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism are all positively associated with aggression, their situational determinants are different. Specifically, those high in sadism engage in violence for sheer enjoyment (Buckels et al., 2013), whereas psychopathic individuals are aggressive for instrumental purposes or when physical provocation takes place (Jones & Paulhus, 2010). Those high in narcissism are aggressive in reaction to ego threats (Jones & Paulhus, 2010), and individuals high in Machiavellianism are more cautious and are less likely to be aggressive unless it benefits them considerably (Jones & Neria, 2015; Jones & Paulhus, 2011). Correlations between the Dark Triad and sadism are often reported as small to moderate for narcissism and moderate to large for Machiavellianism and psychopath (e.g., Book et al., 2016; Buckels et al., 2013; Chabrol et al., 2009; Pajevic, Vukosavljevic-Gvozden, Stevanovic & Neuman, 2018; Plouffe et al., 2017).

Since the majority of sociopaths, psychopaths, narcissists, those in possession of personality disorders like Machiavellianism are not found primarily in jails and prisons and reside within the public sphere of civilian everyday life, the paper Subclinical Sadism and the Dark Triad is worthy of consideration with regard to the development of the 21st-century phenomena of Targeted Individuals suffering from electromagnetic assaults and torture. Using this information to support the prevalence of everyday sadism within the general population (e.g. subclinical sadism) and the use of wireless remote clandestine technologies that target and manipulate human objects, we can draw a conclusion with regard to its tropic of discourse. That is to say, it’s “figure of speech.” A trope presupposes an accepted version of reality for its operation. According to Hayden White’s remark in Tropics of Discourse, trope comes to us through the word tropus, which in Classical Latin meant “metaphor” or “figure of speech.” And with regard to the development of the 21st-century phenomena known as the Targeted Individual we come back to Althusser’s problematic. That is the self-serving entitlement of a male’s social position through subjugation, abuse, and oppression. Of which we have historically witnessed as a “figure of speech” time and time again especially as it applies to music theory of “mood” and “measure”.

The 21st-century phenomena of Targeted Individuals suffering electromagnetic assaults and torture belong to a network of hidden operators working in the service of some male’s self-entitled social position, or more clearly, in the service of dominant masculinity to utilize power through abusive clandestine subjugation and oppression. That is, it comes to us through the masculine social position of power and dominance traditionally witnessed in patriarchy, and to which American’s recently witnessed as the white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups that stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

Sources:

Loraux, Nicole. (1991) Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman. Trans. Anthony Forester. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

Lyotard, Jean-François. (1984) “Interview with Georges Van Den Abbeele, Diacritics 14(3), p. 17.

Lyotard, Jean-François. (1988) The Differend: Phrases in Dispute. trans. Georges Van Den Abbeele. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press.

Walker, Michelle Boulous. (1998) Philosophy and the Maternal Body: Reading silence. New York. Routledge.

Plaza, Monique. (1984) “Ideology Against Women”, Feminist Issues 4(1), pp. 73–82. Somer Brodribb’s discussion of the murder of Helene Rythmann should be read along with Plaza’s article. She provides a wonderful sampling of the various responses to Althusser’s crime. Somer Brodribb, Nothing Mat(t)ers: A Feminist Critique of Postmodernism (Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 1992, p. 3)

Althusser, Louis. (1979). “From Capital to Marx’s Philosophy” in Reading Capital, Louis Althusser and Extienne Balibar, trans. Ben Brewster (London: Verso, pp. 13–78)

Johnson, L., Plouffe, R., & Saklofske, D. (2019). Subclinical Sadism and the Dark Triad. Journal of Individual Differences, 40(3), 127–133.

Plouffe, R.A., Saklofske, D.H., & Smith, M.M. (2017). The Assessment of Sadistic Personality: Preliminary psychometric evidence for a new measure. Personality and Individual Differences, 104, 166–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.07.043

Chabrol, H., van Leeuwen, N., Rodgers, R., & Sejourne, N. (2009). Contributions of psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sadistic personality traits to juvenile delinquency. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 734–739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.06.020

Baumeister, R.F., & Campbell, W.K. (1999). The intrinsic appeal of evil: Sadism, sensational thrills, and threatened egotism. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 210–221. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0303_4

Buckels, E.E., Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). Behavioral confirmation of everyday sadism. Psychological Science, 24, 2201–2209. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613490749

Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2010). Different provocations trigger aggression in narcissists and psychopaths. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1, 12–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550609347591

Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2011). The role of impulsivity in the Dark Triad of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 679–682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.04.011

Jones, D.N., & Neria, A. L. (2015). The Dark Triad and dispositional aggression. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 360–364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.06.021

Pajevic, M., Vukosavljevic-Gvozden, T., Stevanovic, N., & Neumann, C.S. (2018). The relationship between the Dark Tetrad and a two-dimensional view of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 123, 125–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.11.009

Book, A., Visser, B.A., Blais, J., Hosker-Field, A., Methot-Jones, T., Gauthier, N.Y., . . . D’Agata, M.T. (2016). Unpacking more “evil”: What is at the core of the Dark Tetrad? Personality and Individual Differences, 90, 269–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.11.009

White, Hayden. (1978). Tropics of Discourse. Baltimore, Maryland. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Axon, Pulver, Stassen-Berger, Fraser, Salman, Penzenstadler, Wedell, Hines, & Baratz (2021) Capitol riot arrests: See who’s been charged across the U.S. USA Today. Published online January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021. https://www.usatoday.com/storytelling/capitol-riot-mob-arrests/