CONTROL

Brent Anderson

Within human culture control defines the ultimate in good or evil. Control of environment is essential to survival for any organism and it is certainly the first thing that infant humans learn by means of the innate crying reflex. This concept is fundamentally important to the maturation of any young human that initially finds that their body and mind are mostly uncontrollable. This is not just a quest for the very young, as each of us realizes in our own struggle to control our thoughts and actions throughout life. Then ironically just when we think that we have achieved some dominance over our thought processes we are suddenly faced with old age in which our bodies slowly deteriorate increasing the challenge both physically and mentally with the passage of time.

The very essence of our existence is control of self and of as much of our individual environments as is practical, and for some more than is healthy. For a small percentage of humanity the concept of self-control is a great challenge, while for an equal percentage at the other end of the spectrum it is a negligible challenge. No matter which life form one examines, life and survival are dependent on control. There are innumerable objects we can manipulate or situations where in we can exercise will. However, there are only two categories into which all acts of control or will are placed they are internal and external. Internal control is typified by the word self-control, while external control is exerted on the surrounding environment. There are a great number of permutations in each of these two categories. As with most of life’s basic functions, we tend to ignore the underlying motivations, because they are so innate to survival. This myopia is part of our general denial of our place in a very complex ecosystem and our ultimate mortality (most put mankind on a pedestal with only remote relatedness to all other life). With age, even the proud and powerful among us are eventually brought to this understanding, even if it occurs on their deathbeds, but this does not alter our youth oriented culture’s general blindness to inherent behaviors.

Self-control is the more important of the two categories as is evident from even a cursory over view of human society. Organization of human efforts has led to our modern society in which we all place our trust in others obeying a commonly accepted set of rules and laws. Under such circumstance, if an individual lacks self-control and decides that his or her immediate desires take precedence over the rules of society, then that individual becomes a threat to the group. These individuals are classified as criminal threats until they learn to control themselves. Some never learn and have control forced upon them in prison, or ultimately in the death penalty. The subtleties and nuances are not obvious in such black and white examples and life for the average person are made of subtle gray issues.

This gray zone is where hero, heroine and true character are forged. The very best of human character is described by personal decisions that are not mandated by state laws. These are the moral issues of our societies, such as loving our neighbor, remaining faithful to marriage vows, not cheating, not taking advantage of others, and not endangering others with promiscuous sexual gratification. Generally, for lapses in self-control in these areas the laws of our society will not censor an individual. This is the province of family and church. Most of these moral strictures are traditional, and represent thousands of years of human learning and wisdom that have helped mankind to mitigate the internal friction between human tribes and social group’s etc. Along with this package of traditions there are some that are very questionable and have little to recommend them to modern society. However, their importance to minority segments of society may be great in that they may provide security and comfort to the groups involved. (Please note that all groups will have some of these as part of their traditions and perhaps they are useful in that they offer easy nonessential targets for youthful rebels.) On close inspection, most of our traditions are aimed at promoting self-control in that ever-unstable teenage segment of society. Teenagers do their part by trying to retire as many traditions as possible in their rebellious years, only to find in their mature years that they need to reinvent them for their own children.

If internal control is about self-discipline, then external control is about managing the environment. This drive to control the environment is a genetic imperative that is fundamental to all life forms. Since man is the most powerful and dominant species on Earth, it is then understandable that we are establishing a new ecosystem in which some species suffer while others proliferate. This is not a new circumstance since the same can be said for other eras in which dominating species existed. It is true that man’s dominance is certainly unprecedented in terms of physical changes to the Earth and also in terms of effect on all other life forms. The advent of our rapidly increasing abilities to manipulate DNA is evidence that this era, unlike all past eras, will probably become a permanent domination by mankind. This means that future life forms will be engineered to fit man’s planed ecosystem. Some will call this probable future evil, but as time passes an increasing majority will embrace the opportunity to make a better world where benefit for man will replace survival of the fittest as the prime paradigm. Mankind’s prowess in genetic science has made this our destiny.

The greatest potential for evil is found in certain of man’s practices of external control. This ultimate corruption is seen in individuals who wish to control others against their wills. This is not a rare failing, as most of us know of individuals who embrace this odious practice and even revel in the innate evil of their dictatorial power of life and death over their subjects. This practice is not just the province of homicidal dictators for the same sort of corruption is seen daily in the murders of women by husbands that demand nothing less than abject servitude from their wives. It is easy to identify such blatant cases but we often fail to recognize that there are those in our midst who try through political maneuvering to gain power over the majority through lies and statistical deceits. They feel that they know what the people need and that any lies are justified to bring about what they proclaim as the greater good. Some might say that this sort of behavior fits within the law of survival of the fittest and so is not unethical. Human history has disproved this theory many times as illustrated by societies that have flourished as a result of cooperative behavior as compared to totalitarian states, which seem to thrive on war. As repugnant as the practice of slavery is in most of the modern world it is still practiced by many nations. There are many ways to disguise modern forms of slavery. The most popular method is to take over a government in the name of the people and promptly enslave the same so as to make them safe from "foreign enemies of the people" and themselves. Of course the real goal is for those in power to take most of the peoples production for the ruling class, while ruthlessly enforcing austere conformity on the people.

As always the obvious examples are easily recognized. The pitfalls that confront the average person are not so easily recognized. Most of us, at some point in our lives, find ourselves trying to control others. This sort of situation is best illustrated in the relationship of parents and their children. Children are nurtured and taught the rules of survival by parents while they, the children, are always pushing for autonomy. Parents know some of the dangers in life and try to teach and protect their progeny (their genetic and cultural legacy) from youthful decisions that could ruin them for life or cost them their lives. This process of parenting is best conceptualized as a sliding scale that starts with total parental control of an infant and slides to little parental control when the children leave home, and terminates when children become functioning adults. The challenge is to give freedom before the children become estranged by over-control. Hopefully, the children learn the important rules of life and self-control before they leave home. This process does not involve slavery of children but rather is a period of training, which covers a time when they are not equipped to fend for themselves, that is, preparing them for full autonomy. For parents most of life’s decisions are made from the precarious equivalent of a tight rope, which is composed of external and internal control dilemmas. These dilemmas require a constant striving to be balanced and moderate so as to not harm others whether associates or children.

The most successful of mankind’s cooperative organizational systems to date is capitalism, which is an interesting mixture of freedom and servitude. In this system service is completely voluntary. Those who serve (work) have freedom to quit and move elsewhere or even drop out entirely. However, if they buy into the system, then they enter a lifetime of servitude to government and society. Some, realizing this, decide that they would rather be a leader than a follower and so start there own business or go into politics. However, as long as an individual owns property of any kind he or she is captive to the system. Wealth is no guarantee of freedom, for the government could still arbitrarily confiscate all such. Those who drop out may believe that they are free, but they depend on the charity of those within the system. Ultimately, we all are subject to a system and government, and if we are lucky, it is one in which we have a say.

While it will always be true that man can be physically controlled and forced into slavery, no master can control thought. As long as this holds true the enslaved can apply self-control, and with that and discipline eventually free themselves. This truth has been proven through the ages. When all things are considered control both internal and external are inextricably a part of all life processes on Earth. It is impossible to even imagine life forms that could function without some need to exercise control either internal or external. Control must be considered as one of the most basic of life requirements.