Why The Domination Chronicles?

A Brief Explanation

The root of chronicle is, of course, chronic, one meaning of which is “continuing for a long time.” A chronicle can be thought of as a story that is continuous. A chronicle is “an historical account of events in the order of time; a history.”

The subtitle of the Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s amazing book Silencing the Past (1995) is “Power and the Production of History.” It has often been said that those in positions of power create history and thereby frame our understanding of the past which informs our present.

We’ve all heard “the winners write the history.” With regard to the dominating society of the United States in relation to our original nations and peoples I say, “They aren’t ‘the winners’ yet, because we are still challenging their system of domination.”

Those who know how to skillfully wield the wand of domination, and thereby mystify (i.e., puzzle and bewilder) the masses, have a tremendous ability to shape our present-day experience of reality. What is a wand? It’s a “slender flexible rod used, esp. waved, by one who enchants, conjures, or performs feats of legerdemain.” A magic wand is often made from the wood of the Holly tree, otherwise known as hollywood.

Legerdemain is a word for magic, sometimes known as “sleight of hand,” or “any artful trick [of the mind].” The supposed “authorizations” for voyages of “discovery” resulted in magical claims to “possess” the lands of original nations and peoples from the mouth of a river all the way to its source. The stories of such ceremonial “acts” were designed to trick us into believing fanciful and fantastic claims, such as the erroneous view that the sponsoring monarch had a “God-given,” and thus valid right of domination to transfer to his or her voyagers. I like to call these “It’s Just Not So” stories.

Returning to the idea of the wand of domination, it is also known as, “a staff of authority, such as a scepter,” which is “a baton or staff borne by a sovereign as an emblem of authority; also, royal or imperial authority.” Jonathon Havercroft in Captives of Sovereignty (2014) defines “sovereignty” as, “an unjust form of political domination that limits human freedom.” Even “freedom” is accurately interpreted as freedom under domination. A symbol of this is the Liberty Bell: The bell in the shape of a dome is under (sub in Latin) a yoke (jugare, in Latin): “sub” + “jugare” = “subjugare,” meaning “to subjugate,” or to force under domination.

The domination chronicles have been ongoing for thousands of years. The resulting problems are chronic and persistent for the simple reason that the destructive patterns created by those who will do most anything to achieve wealth and power are never-ending. To quote Michel-Rolph Trouillot, “While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it in their own hands.” Ours is a view-from-the-shore perspective, based on our original free existence, as contrasted with the colonizers view-from-the-ship perspective, with the intention to claim a right of domination over everyone and everything.

This sub stack is dedicated to providing insight into such patterns. It’s my effort to break the hypnotic spell so we can learn how to see and behave in a manner that is beneficial to one another and all living things.