SUPREMACY, TABOOS, AND THE DRUG WAR

If you ask most people the difference between superiority and supremacy,
their first instinct is to rely on the technical meaning of the words, or
refer to the dictionary. In order to truly understand what we mean when we
use a word it is far more useful to refer to a tool such as Google, which
pulls up a sampling of English usage as opposed to a standardized
definition. Take a moment to try that out with the words Superiority and
Supremacy.

What we find is that superiority is the direct reflection of our genetic
need for competition. We compete in every imaginable way in our society -
work and play, physical, mental and emotional, creative and logical. To
the winners of these competitions go the best jobs, food, mating partners -
with nearly anything that possesses varying levels of quality, the highest
quality will be distributed to those who are superior by some rating scale.
In order to facilitate this, we specifically divide the world into "US" and
"THEY" and then spend a lot of time figuring out how U.S. are better than
THEY, and thus more deserving of the finest things in life. This comprises
the roots of an entire genre of -ism's: racism, creedism, classism etc.

Supremacy takes this concept to its ultimate conclusion. Supremacy is when
you believe that you are so far superior to THEY (Jews, blacks, infidels,
whatever) that you have the god-given right--or perhaps duty--to persecute,
imprison, or even kill all members of the THEY sect, without having to
demonstrate harm, and without incurring repercussions. When you type
Supremacist into Google, you primarily receive links to Nazi and white
supremacist (pro and con) literature.

In its own way, the pursuit of supremacy is responsible for most of the
evils that beset mankind. Even the word "evil" reflects this, being traced
back to (proto-indo-european) "upelo-", which translates to "uppity,
overreaching bounds". Money isn't the root of all evil - it's the pursuit
of superiority. Money is just a commonly accepted scoring system.

If you translate "US" as those who don't use or abuse drugs and "THEY" as
those who do, then a lot of the motivation behind the drug war starts to
make sense. Having laws in place only serve to validate US's belief in
their supremacy over THEY. This validation leads to more extreme levels of
persecution of THEY, and less thinking about the real details of the conflict.

One of the most telling clues to this may be found in the laws themselves,
which are designed to persecute, not to correct. We don't want THEM to
become US, because then we'd have nobody to be superior over. The
proponents of this system continue to push for harsher laws despite all
evidence disproving of allegations of harm.

Eventually this snowballs into our current situation, where even speaking
out about the issue labels you as one of THEM, and nobody can admit that
it's wrong, because that would be giving up one's superiority and accepting
guilt and culpability in addition to persecution.

It is unfortunate that the word supremacist has become a derogatory
term. It's frequently tossed around, and many people don't even understand
what they mean when they say it. Sadly, supremacy is a very common ailment
in the world today. Not being able to use the word is like not being able
to use "malnourished" or "infected" - it only allows the problem to worsen.

It is about time that this word was invoked regarding the war on
drugs. Not in the sense of name calling, but in the sense of identifying a
problem. Not yelled in anger, but stated in context with a full
explanation to back it up. Not to create arguments but to create
understanding. Not to start something, but to end it.