I keep thinking about the idea that we are either (primarily) controlled by forces inside us or by forces outside us. I am an internally controlled person, so it takes a bit of thought to understand the other.

Accepting that externally controlled people feel little or no control of forces or events, it makes sense that a form of community, of tribalism, is important. It is crucial to feel a sense of security for an increased faith in survival; if it is not within yourself it must be in forces outside. This would take the form of laws, enforcement, weapons, experts, and authority. There is strength in numbers. You would value loyalty to the community upon pain of harm or even death. This operates on the individual, community, and national levels.

It would make sense, then, that anything foreign or not understood could be a threat; how can you defend against something you don't understand or have the resource to fight? Thus other religions and cultures are automatically suspect. Or homosexual marriage would threaten your heterosexual marriage. Without a deep belief in internal ability, anything seen as a threat must be eliminated by means determined by those in authority.

It would also explain why so many people listen to, and believe, media personalities who repeat lies time after time and the people believe them. To think outside the box would be tantamount to giving up your membership to the club, and without the community it’s you against the universe. The thought is too frightening to even entertain. It allows marketers to determine fashions and then switch them every season, guaranteeing themselves an industry and livelihood. It would explain how large corporations perpetuate mistruths about their product acquisition, financial state, profit margin, dedication to the well being of people, etc. and are believed. It would explain how weapons manufacturers convince us they provide peace and security.

But like finally understanding why self-mutilators cut or burn themselves, it doesn’t mean that external forces are bad, wrong, or a threat. In pure logic, if you don’t understand something it could be either good or bad. You just don’t know. In the same sense, externally controlled people tend to idolize authority figures, yet without knowing strength within (and its sources and development) you couldn’t know how to discriminate which authority figures are legitimate and which are hucksters.

The research says that a predominantly internally controlled person with a realistic idea of what external forces are beyond his or her control is the most mature and healthy. And even more, while many external events are beyond control you can still develop the ability to deal with most situations with the least amount of harm occurring. It is also understood that the most advanced of these people would be the most capable of leading, and it only makes sense that the most advanced should lead others to control themselves individually and collectively, yet having conquered themselves they feel little to no compulsion to take control of others.

It is easy to say that marketing, profit, manipulation, and corruption in business, religion, and government are run amok. What’s more difficult is to design how to stop digging and crawl out of the hole we’ve dug.

That’s why I keep mentioning the Golden Rule. It’s pretty simple, even for simple people, and its widespread use would make a difference like we can’t even imagine. I would also suggest making cooperation more important than competition. These alone would make our nation the strongest and most advanced in world history, and the interesting thing is that we would probably bring all the other nations along with us.