Deepa Kumar’s important new book on Islamophobia explores the link between the politics of Empire and domestic attacks on Muslims in Western nations.This book review focuses largely on the author's revelations about the favorite method of capitalist elites to maintain control over working people--divide and conquer--which is now being applied with some success against Muslims, although inevitably there will sometimes be "blowbacks" (see this for insights on blowback).
I have often wondered about the frequent and successful use of this strategy. It has been such a successful weapon against the emancipation of working people throughout history. Is the divide and conquer strategy exploiting a fatal flaw in human nature that encourages ordinary people to uncritically follow powerful people against their own interests? Is there no hope of overcoming this flaw?
My musings on these questions have suggested some hunches that might explain this weakness. Perhaps it is the lengthy period of childhood needed to fully develop the marvelous human brain that creates a sense of dependency in many who are unable to transition fully into adulthood. Hence, they fail to develop their critical thinking faculties, and instead continue to defer to adult authority figures as they enter adulthood.
Then there is the class rule that has plagued humanity for the last 10,000 years of the approximately 175,000 years of human existence. Class rule by definition uses authoritarian methods--violence, threat of violence, indoctrinating subordinate members into believing that authority figures who serve the ruling class have superior knowledge (e.g. they are divinely inspired, they are "experts") to maintain privileged control over their subordinate populations. Thus, given their control over institutions of indoctrination--education, media, religion, entertainment--they have the ability to reinforce authoritarian mindsets.
The latter is effective in preventing the transition from childhood into adulthood by transferring childish notions about the infallibility of parental authority onto adult authorities in the ruling class. This is especially effective if people are taught in their childhood to always respect authority, that there are right answers to everything and the authorities can provide them with these answers, that they are weak (as they were in childhood) and must look to powerful persons for their material well-being, salvation, for understanding of political and economic issues that are too complicated for them, etc.
