ERIC BERNE in his well-known book “Games People Play” analyzed by way of transactional analysis, various games which people play with each other as they put the other person down, defend themselves from attack, exploit the other or protect themselves from exploitation. There is one game which is played among many people either individually, in small groups, societies, professional circles, nationally or worldwide and that is “Hierarchical Exploitation” (HE) or “Hierarchical Abuse” in which one individual or a group exploits the other by virtue of their superior position either physically, socially economically, culturally, politically or otherwise.
Normally any attempt to exploit another for one’s advantage is met with stiff resistance and it is difficult to make the other person work for your benefit except by severe force or deceit. However, in this game or established behavior code, the person who is lower down the hierarchical ladder is tempted and encouraged to exploit people even further down the ladder, thus giving them the advantage and pleasure of exploiting others and making gains thereby, albeit clandestinely.
Once they feel empowered by exploiting the person lower down and profiting from it, they have enlisted themselves in this behavior code. After doing so, this person is subject to being exploited by the person higher up the ladder since he has already enlisted himself in this game, more so with the help of that person who is higher up.
For example, if those in a group in one community who are in the majority are encouraged to exploit Muslims who are in the minority and economically and educationally backward, then members of this group feel empowered because they feel free to loot, kill and rape members of the minority and keep them away from the mainstream of business, education, politics and administration.
By doing this they are party to the crimes and thereby enlist themselves in the game of “Hierarchical Exploitation” which retrogresses further when members of the higher caste exploit them, now in the name of caste.
To give another example, if a gang of four ruffians decide to abuse women of lower caste, all four are party to the crime and to the game of HE. Then if three of the boys decide to abuse a female relative of the fourth gang member, he cannot object because he has already consented to the practice of abuse which is considered normal among these four. In this manner the strongest man or group prevails over many people by starting the chain of crime or exploitation or abuse which ultimately culminates in the victory of a very few who form the hardcore group and usually exhibit extremist behavior because of the nature of this game.
I recently viewed a video in which four friends were sitting on their respective chairs in a park. When one of the friends gets up to get something, another friend gets up and moves his chair so that the first one falls down while attempting to sit. The second one too falls down while attempting to sit because the third friend has moved his chair while he was busy moving the chair of the first one. This could go on endlessly until all the members have fallen down by their chair being pulled out from under them save the last one or two.
In many countries, including in the West, Muslims are the target of ridicule and hate for crimes purported to have been committed by them. Either by chance or design, Muslims are employed to commit crimes and then this fact is highlighted in the media to unleash a hate wave against them, justifying wrong practices like invading their countries for oil and land. Once the lowest member of their society or country gets a chance to rob a Muslim store or kill a Muslim, he feels clandestinely empowered, thereby enrolling himself in the HE game. Having done that, he is party to all crimes committed by people higher up in the society against him while he continues to gloat over the crimes which he gets to commit with their support. A person or a group who is lowest on the ladder, who is not in a position to exploit anybody, usually is given a free hand to destroy some public property, litter or soil public places, and create some amount of nuisance just to let him feel empowered and allow him to be exploited subsequently by those higher up.
One of the reasons why members of higher social groups commit atrocities against members of lower social groups like riots, murder, looting and rape is that they see a perceived gain in another’s loss. The higher group somehow psychologically feels that by destroying the people of the lower group they stand to gain.
In this way most people are controlled and oppressed by those who are higher than them, but this is done at the cost of keeping all of society lower down the ladder of development and progress. An ideal situation would be to take everyone together in an all-round development program so that everyone benefits from it, a win-win situation for all.
Some amount of HE exists in all societies, at individual and national levels, which will be apparent to us if we tune our level of awareness to the existence of this kind of game operating in our lives. If we allow it to operate, then it will consume all our resources and keep us down the ladder of development and progress while keeping only some of us in a position of power and prestige, albeit at an overall low level.
Shabbir Thingna,
Madinah
