Hidden hierarchy, allegiance and authority

The R-complex. The reptilian part of our brain loves ceremony, ritual, and hierarchy. The reptilian part of our brain is also responsible for the fight-or-flight response when there’s no time to think when facing danger, there’s only time to act.

Now, look around you. See how people signal social status. There’s the obvious, in-your-face, allegiance. We pledge allegiance to the flag, for example, how much that allegiance is worth, that’s another matter. Same with authority. Sometimes, the ones who seem to be in charge – actually aren’t. Society is tricky, isn’t it? Things aren’t always what they seem.

In spite of assurances that we’re equal, the complex interplay of allegiance, authority and hierarchy shows we’re anything but equal. We’re only equal in theory. Our inner reptile needs hierarchy, apparently. Look at passport power. What a great example of hierarchy.

There’s also the demonic hierarchy, allegedly. The hidden hierarchy. Let’s say there’s a CEO of a company and a cleaning lady. Officially, of course, the CEO is at the top and the cleaning lady is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Yet, as it happens, the cleaning lady is possessed by a far more powerful demon than the CEO. The demonic hierarchy is the hierarchy that matters. Again, things aren’t necessarily what they seem.

No wonder some of us like hazing rituals. Fraternities, sororities, secret societies – all expressions of our need for hierarchy and obsessions with initiations, rites of passage, what have you. Apparently, as punishment for cowards and traitors in the Middle Ages, they were given emasculated coats-of-arms. True or not, emasculated escutcheons sound like a stand-up comedy material.

The question of hierarchy is the eternal dilemma of teachers. You don’t want to be friends with your students, especially kids – they will test you and walk over you. Being a dictator isn’t the best idea, either, especially with crazy parents these days who want to sue you for daring to say their kid is less than stellar. There’s an informal hierarchy of subjects, too. The importance of English is understood by almost all students, even the ones who say they hate English and don’t want to speak it. The kids are also smart enough to know if their teacher’s English is high-level or not. I had a situation where my students were laughing at another English teacher because ”he always had to look up words on his phone” only to add ”but you never do that.” They were right but I didn’t say it out loud, of course. Never undermine the authority of another teacher in front of your students, no matter what you think of him or her. Bad, bad move.

Now, back to the question of unclear allegiances and unofficial hierarchies trumping official hierarchies. Picture the following scenario. You’re looking for a lawyer to help you with your inheritance court case.

Now, there’s a brilliant lawyer in town. But there’s an issue. You learn through the grapevine that he belongs to a religious fringe group. Yes. A cult. Worse yet, you learn that he was born and raised in that cult. Major red flag. Why? The lawyer has been inculcated with the beliefs of the group from birth. Those beliefs are the foundation of his identity. In such a scenario, chances are slim to none that his allegiance to you, the client, is going to supersede his allegiance to the group and, more specifically, to the cult leader. In the normal hierarchy, the client is the most important. In the hidden hierarchy, the cult leader is number one.

When the cult’s representative contacts your lawyer to learn the details about the court case – a likely scenario because these groups like gathering intel on everything and everyone – do you really think the lawyer is going to say none of your business, hang up and block the number? Extremely unlikely. The lawyer was born into that group, remember? It’s highly likely he can’t even conceptualize saying no to such a ”request” by a high-ranking cult member. The lawyer might even pick up the phone right after talking to you to report to his local leader that ”we’ve got a new gold mine in town.”

By hiring the lawyer with links to fringe groups – the kind of groups hiding behind religion but in fact obsessed with elitism, money and power, you’re handing over the keys to the kingdom to the cult. Don’t give them access to information about your finances because they won’t leave you alone, and might even start stalking you. Make sure your lawyer’s allegiance is to you, and not to the cult.

Speaking of cults and breakaway groups, and perhaps as an aside but still worth sharing, as a former member of an organization investigating the unexplained, I like me some unusual experiences from time to time. For example, I took part in the Tridentine Mass in Latin some time ago. It’s the Traditionalist Mass, a result of doctrinal differences in the Church. Well, it sure was intriguing. It was like stepping into a parallel universe for me, vintage 1950. I had no idea how much you can kneel. A bit too much for me. During a mainstream Catholic Mass in Polish, English or any modern language (Mass not in Latin is inspired by the Devil or so they believe, poor Devil – he can’t catch a break), you kneel just for a moment here and there. But the Tridentine Mass was something else. They sure kneel a lot. It’s like an alternate reality version of mainstream Catholicism. I was also reminded my Latin sucks, in spite of having four years of lingua Latina in (Catholic) high school.

Yeah, the whole thing was like a Twilight Zone episode.

All aside, it’s best to stay away from such groups. It’s my firm belief after talking to people who had less-than-pleasant encounters with cults, breakaway groups, and so on. But I’m not here to save the world. Just sharing my take on things.

Blog 205. Wow. Flew by.