Dualistic Thinking and Ego:
The Roots of Global Conflict
Dualistic Thinking and Ego: The Roots of Global Conflict
July 3, 2024 by Eric Arnow
Dualistic Thinking and Ego: The Roots of Western Conflict
“Liars, Murderers, all of you liars! You’re only happy when you see something die..why don’t you kill yourselves and be happy…You and your ‘God’s country…Freedom’! I pity you!…you’re three DEAD Men!”
–Marilyn Monroe, in her last movie, The Misfits, 1962. She watched as Clark Gable tied up a horse to send to the glue factory to sell for $120. And their reaction, ‘She’s crazy’.
Death seed blind man’s greed
Poets’ starving children bleed
Nothing he’s got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man. –King Crimson, 21st Century Schizoid Man
White man speaks with forked tongue —The phrase “speaks with a forked tongue” means to deliberately say one thing and mean another or, to be hypocritical, or act in a duplicitous manner. In the longstanding tradition of many Native American tribes, “speaking with a forked tongue” has meant lying, and a person was no longer considered worthy of trust, once he had been shown to “speak with a forked tongue
U.S. diplomacy: non-agreement-capable.—https://michael-hudson.com/2021/09/the-vocabulary-of-neoliberal-diplomacy-in-todays-new-cold-war/
East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet The culture of the West (Europe and the Americas) will always be very different from that of the East (Asia). (Twain means “two.”) This saying is part of the refrain of “The Ballad of East and West,” a poem by Rudyard Kipling.
Table of Contents
Current Conflicts
Every day, there are news reports of conflict, mostly involving localized fights, but with outside actors. As I write this, there are at least these:
Ukraine war, with the US and the West supplying weapons to Ukraine to fight Russia. Biden and Victoria Nuland staged ‘the most blatant coup in history’, using Ukrainian Nazis as enforcers, the grandchild of Nazi collaborators in WWII, who had massacred hundreds of thousands.
Gaza, where the US is supplying Israel to attack Palestinians. But this conflict has been going on since at least the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The Israel Minister of Defense referred to Palestinians as ‘Human animals’, who must be eradicated.
Threats of war by Israel and the United States against Iran , since it has been accused of supporting anti Western/anti Israeli terrorists, as well as developing nuclear weapons
Africa, where several military coups have taken place, in opposition to French forces who were supposedly there to combat terrorists, but without success.
The view prevailing among US political elites, that China is a primary threat to the USA, along with Russia, North Korea as well as non state actors, like Hezbollah, Hamas,
to name a few…..
What is the underlying cause of just the current conflicts? The perception of a Unipolar World dominated by a Pax Americana–peace enforced by US military, which followed the domination of much of the world by European colonialism and empire building, aka imperialism.
A History of Genocides
Here is a sampling of the past 500 years of Western colonialism and imperial conquest, which has resulted in countless conflicts.
Two world wars, which easily resulted in well over 50 million deaths, a large percent, civilian.
Numerous genocides, such as the USA and Australian genocides of their native populations,
Spanish and Portuguese conquest and slaughter in South America,
The transatlantic slave trade, which claimed millions of lives,
The Belgian genocide in the socalled Belgian Congo, and the German genocide in Namibia,
The deliberate starvation of the Irish by the British in the artificially induced ‘Potato Famine’,
The deliberate starvation of 3 million Bengalese during WWII in India, engineered by Winston Churchill
Academic research shows that the British were responsible for the deaths of over 100 million Indians in 40 years.
Author and researcher Gideon Polya has this to say:
Deaths from violence and imposed deprivation in the 1990 onwards Iraqi Holocaust (5.0-5.5 million) are commensurate with those in the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million), the WW2 Polish Holocaust (6 million), and the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Indian Holocaust, WW2 Bengal Famine; 6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death for strategic reasons in Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Odisha by the British with food-denying Australian complicity), but much fewer than in the WW2 European Holocaust (30 million mostly Russian and other Slavic victims as well as Jewish and in Roma victims), and the WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35-40 million Chinese deaths from violence and deprivation under the Japanese, 1937-1945).
For detailed listings of about 70 genocides and holocausts see “Report Genocide” [16] and my books “US-imposed post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide” [4] and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” [17]. The Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide [2, 4-7] was part of a wider 21st century Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide in which (as determined in 2015) 32 million Muslims died from violence (5 million) and imposed deprivation (27 million) in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9/11 false flag atrocity in which about 3,000 innocent Americans perished [18-20]
Class of Civilizations, or Clash of Mentalities?
While the phrase Clash of Civilizations has been discussed, at issue is in fact, a clash of mental frameworks. One way of looking at it is in the difference between dualistic thinking and nondualistic thinking.
The Difference Between Dualistic and Nondualistic Thinking
Dualistic and nondualistic thinking are two ways of understanding the world around us. At their core, these two modes of thought are concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and how we perceive and understand it. While dualistic thinking divides the world into separate and distinct categories, nondualistic thinking sees all things as interconnected and interdependent.
Two Modes of Thought: Not Philosophical, But Perceptual
What Is Dualistic Thinking?
For example, dualistic thinking compartmentalizes reality into separate and distinct, self existent entities, each with its own distinct characteristics and properties. This mode of thought is often associated with the western philosophical tradition, which has traditionally emphasized the importance of individualism and the separation of the self from the rest of the world.
Dualistic thinking is also characterized by a tendency to dichotomize the world, dividing it into opposing categories such as good and evil, right and wrong, and subject and object.
What is Nondualistic Thinking
Nondualistic thinking, on the other hand, sees the world as being interconnected and interdependent, with no fundamental distinction between self and other. This mode of thought is often associated with Eastern philosophical traditions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, which place a greater emphasis on the unity and interconnectedness of all things.
Nondualistic thinking is characterized by a holistic and inclusive approach to the world, which sees all things as being interconnected and interdependent. It also downplays the idea of a self. Nondualism sees the self, the person as made up of infinite parts, which constantly change, so how can there be a self existent entity, since it depends on infinite factors?
Here, the noted Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh explains it well.
Dualistic thinking sees the self as being separate, distinct (and too often superior to) the rest of the world.
How Does Ego Come into the Picture?
Ego centered thinking is the natural result of dualistic, or discriminative thinking.
Western thinking has come to be dominated by “I think, therefore, I am”. Western people have a very deeply ingrained idea of their own inherent existence. This has resulted in a very self centered way of being. It’s reached such an extreme, that such maxims as “Greed is Good”, and “Whoever Dies with the Most Toys Wins”.
In the past, ideas such as altruism, empathy, sympathy, and other centeredness held a much higher place in society. Because people in the West begin with the idea of themselves at the center, those in leadership positions became more and more convinced of their own correctness. Often at the expense of others. Rather than win–win, the nondualistic approach to relationships, relations have become, “what’s in it for me”, or ‘Zero Sum Game’.
It’s reached the point where especially in international relations, it’s become ‘My way or the highway’, ‘Your either with us or with the terrorists’.
On the other hand, Westerners deprecate non Westerners. Western people assume that non Westerners, that is, not Caucasians, are less civilized, less intelligent, less caring, and hold life in less regard. Josep Borel, now Foreign Affairs Minister for the EU, refers to Europe as The Garden, and non Europe as The Jungle.
He forgets where Europe got the resources to build its garden. As an example, France used to get uranium for its nuclear reactors, to make electricity, for about a dollar a ton from Niger. Niger, with its black skinned people, has almost no electricity! However, Australians get the market price of $200/ton. So he justifies his exploitation by his racist discrimination of ‘the Other’, that is, non Europeans.
The Stupidity of Arrogance
One time, I went to a panel discussion, where a scientist said that ‘Animals don’t have feelings’. At the time, I thought that guy must be incredibly insensitive…He’s the one who can’t feel that animals have feelings.
A common expression we hear is “USA, USA!” Most people who say that have probably never even been outside the USA to compare it with other countries. And unfortunately, even if they do, they’re too arrogant and stupid to appreciate where they are.
One time, I went to the local farm in Thailand where they keep cows and offer milk straight from the cow to the public. A British guy was waiting and asked for milk in his horribly spoken unintelligible Thai. When they didn’t understand him, he got angry at them, rather than realizing it was his fault. This is typical imperialist, dualistic, egotistical thinking. As the guest in their country, where people are trained to be polite, his behavior was embarrassing.
Conclusion
From my observation, people in the West have an arrogant, dismissive attitude that allows them to think things like “How dare Iran want to control OUR OIL…which is in Iran.” Or why France thinks that Australians can charge $200/ton for uranium but ‘subhumans’ who live in Niger may only charge $1.
Because they see the world in binary, dualistic terms, see themselves as “real” while seeing others as mere objects to be manipulated or exploited, they have no respect, and see no reason to act sincerely.
We can talk about duality, non duality, ego, and so on, which are all just concepts. It really boils down to the current crisis of Consciousness, which is going on, on both interpersonal, class, intra country, our relationship to the planet, and international relations. This is especially true in the West.
That is the cause of all the conflicts in the world today. A certain demographic and geographic segment of the global community has a mental problem. It’s delusional, narcissistic and destructive. However, after centuries of patience, the rest of the world has decided to put an end to this. The socalled Civilized West is going to finally get what it deserves. It will be isolated and its people will be left with the task of figuring out how it all went wrong.
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