Submission & Domination

Hegel is a god of philosophy as far as I'm concerned because of his dialectical process and because of his arguments regarding Master & Slave. It goes something like this:

At the outset when people meet there is the chance of equality. This is not simple because the consciousness has two sides - the subject and the object. Each person will view the "other" person as an object in the world.

In our own mind we are a powerful subject with the power to objectify anything. It might follow reasonably that the "other" person has a subjectivity too.

There is a problem in doing this however because if we recognise that the other person has a valid subjectivity then we are at the same time giving them the power to objectify us.

Being objectified strips us of our subjectivity and we may as well be a stone. It is death. The fear of being objectified (zoned/blanked) means that we tend to shy from acknowledging people's subjectivity and see them preferably as an object, as a stone. That is the root of the psycho/sociopaths problem.

One progressive solution to this problem is the sub/dom, Master/Slave, King/subject relationship. Here the Master has absolute power and objectifies all others. The others can't accept their objectivity (which would be death) instead they accept slavery because they can at least experience what a free subjectivity is by being pushed around. What Hegel argues is that the King is a static consciousness because he has the illusion of freedom already, while the slaves are a dynamic consciousness desiring the freedom of their king and so developing. Eventually revolution rips through the situation as the slaves over throw the king and liberate themselves. They do not however take up thrones themselves because each liberated slave understands that the king was not really free, only free because they had accepted slavery. No-one becomes a king, no-one becomes a slave and people see each other equally. That is the emergence of spirit in Hegel. The "I that is We and the We that is I".

Now years ago this was the narrative I used regarding my slavery to my muse. I suddenly remember this and need to ponder where I am in this dialectic now. Its late time to sleep... sweet dreams