The D&C Number Racket and Primal Unity

essay

“Number is as fundamental as the other three cardinal metaphors, space, time, and matter, because it is an interrelated aspect of the divide-and-conquer metaphor which extends and diversifies the primal unity.”
~Roger S. Jones, from Physics As Metaphor

Sometimes when, as a writer, i have pondered what success is or what would satisfy me, i have questioned what many people consider the formula for success. In short, some words/phrases that summarize the ‘make it big’ formula: went viral; franchise; corporate media exposure; Hollywood-movie-ad-package-meal-deal; book tours with adoring fans; NY Times bestseller list; and if you’re really really lucky, OMG, Oprah!

Because of that model, many writers expect too much and too-often feel like failures. But that’s a deceptive model, and on many levels other than literary. Granted, if sales and the money from them is your goal, that formula isn’t a bad thing and best of luck to you—but that type of career-goal aside, there are other approaches: the joy of artistic pursuits, getting messages out there, niche markets, and reaching a smaller number of people with whom the work truly affects them rather than masses who click “like” and go back to their previously scheduled lives. It’s a challenging thing to measure.

The ‘make it big’ formula reminds me of a franchise mentality which reminds me of McDonald’s/fastfood which reminds me of what i consider one of if not the first franchise models: churches, of which there are 250,000 to 400,000 (web-searches differ) in the US; big number! No surprise, some say, it’s a popular religion—and often, admirably, hosting food pantries and doing other community-minded things. However, an astounding number considering that before the Book and the cross arrived in North America aka Turtle Island, Native Peoples didn’t need churches, nor books, nor, by the way, McDonald’s; they were already living and flourishing with “primal unity.”

Gutenberg’s press, with the Bible as the first book to get on the ‘best seller’ list, in effect created individual world fame (which now includes corporate “personhood”) and its subsequent PR partner, franchising. “Franchise” is a branch of colonial domination. Of the etymology, one root is: “circa 1300, fraunchise, "a special right or privilege (by grant of a sovereign or government).” Now you know why big franchises already making big money can get city, state or federal subsidies, or in franchise lingo “government grants.” Topping the list is Boeing, one of the six top weapons manufacturers along with Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Technologies/RTX, Northrop Grumman Corp., General Dynamics Corp., and L3Harris Technologies. And as the word shows, these subsidies are part of the colonial settler’s ongoing war: “Latin subsidium "a help, aid, assistance, (military) reinforcements, troops in reserve," from subsidere "to settle down, stay, remain."”

The colonial franchise model, abetted by religious proselytizing, divided and dominated the land into 50 ‘states,’ thus the Capitol would more aptly be called, Washington D&C (Divide&Conquer)—but not actually “Conquered” because Native Nations are still here and often on the front lines protecting their waters and lands. Therefore, Divide-and-Rule is more accurate for conveying what the-powers-that-do-too-much do, but D&C is their endgame and fits the bill for identifying one of the global heartless headquarters.

The number racket breeds competition, breeds best sellers and doorstops, breeds business ledgers, tax brackets, rich and poor, and territories (etymology of “territory: to hold a place in subjection through terror,” is one meaning.)

The colonial franchise model has been adopted as THE formula for big success, whether with the arts or a cupcake store—big territory, big sales, big bucks, get kickbacks so you can kick back, big chill out and enjoy the rewards of living the [American] dream.

Yeah, number pays the bills and number can reflect sacred geometries. But number, in context here, is used to promote competition, better than, and division (no pun intended). Number makes people numb to “primal unity;” primal unity fully respects and loves the smallest of the small.

Number breeds a superiority-military-industrial-complex and control of resources—think billionaire class war and actual war destroying countries so as to rebuild them, the most current socio-pathological example of the latter being Mr. Bigly’s idea for Trump Gaza on genocided, scorched earth land. Even MAGAers cried “Foul!” when hearing about that. But please don’t go all Trump Derangement Syndrome about it because Biden’s Gaza footprints have blood in them.

Yet, many Americans generally don’t know or seem to care that since WW II the USEmpire war machine has killed an estimated 20 to 30 million people—because what really makes one’s day is how many “likes” and “sales” one gets. Many Americans generally don’t know or seem to care that 95 to 97.5% of the Original Peoples of Turtle Island were killed so as to plunder for big numbers—not to mention christendom’s “fruitful and multiply,” which, again, brings franchising to mind.

I just used numbers in the form of statistics to drive home a point, yet, sadly, those aren’t actually numbers—those were human beings!!

The number racket perpetuates an ongoing violence of divide-and-conquer. To the average citizen, what ensues is like a colonial asymptote, the whittling down of basic finances for basic needs, or as the World Economic Forum plan for 2030 would like it, “You'll own nothing and you'll be happy.”

As the Roger S. Jones epigraph quote alludes to, worship of number breeds divide-and-conquer mentality. If in the lottery of artistic and other life efforts one person ‘makes it big,’ what of the others? Talent deserves notice and exposure, yet questions need be asked: At what price? And is it worth it? Perhaps more localized efforts are better for the big picture, as with growing foods.

If ‘the message’ wants to, needs to be bigger, then go with the number because people want or need to hear something that can help tilt the scales of this troubled world; yet remember: number can lie—Hitler was popular.

While branding and PR can work wonders, personally i look to the Tao Te Ching (Thou Dei Jinn) as a guide:

Who is puffed-up cannot stand.
Who is self-important has not importance.
Exhibitionists do not really shine.
Egotists have no real merit.
Flatter yourself and you will not last long!

As artists and as human beings, i encourage people to study their own patterns and so-called failures and successes… so as to see if you notice anything aside from the basic ideal of ‘people love my stuff, people buy my stuff; people love me, I get lots of attention.’ It took me many years and many emotional struggles to realize that my writings typically do something other than i expect; in other words, an unexpected form of networking with various people, and that includes making new friends and literary allies—and sometimes losing friends who disagreed.

The colonial franchise model works against the natural world and “primal unity.” Nature has a built-in abundance: Grains of sand at the beach . . . Grains of rice in the jar; if a few miss the plate, who loses sleep? . . . One apple tree in the yard forces you to share.

At a local store i saw a shelf with packages of seeds and small bags of onions, potatoes, and more for planting, and i thought: People are starving when there’s this ton of food potential at one little store! People are food-challenged not because of lack of food but because of the billionaire numbers of colonial franchises whose endgame is divided-and-conquered.

When it comes to so-called property, subdivisions are part of the D&C number racket endgame. What the The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) did to the Natives’ way of ‘communal’ living has been done to Americans (emphasis on suburbia), but the latter barely notice because they didn’t grow up without fences, and because, well, there’s the Internet, 24-7 on-demand streaming videos, and, more recently in some states, a yard to grow a limited amount of legal weed.

We as human beings are now living in a time when the biggest role model of abundance, giving and sharing is suffering because of neglect and because of the D&C number racket. And that biggest role model is Mother Earth who every day, every second reminds us of primal unity—a physics fact that no one can dispute.

“Each and every one of us was given just as much intelligence as we need. It’s not a contest.” ~John Trudell

Put your intelligence to good use and work with others, both human and non-human.

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Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) writes, publishes, gardens, travels a holistic mystic Kaballah-rooted pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. To find out more about his writings, publishings, podcasts, presentations… Allbook Books