The supremacy virus

From the simple to the extreme.

We have the obvious ones. Colour, gender, financial wealth.

We have the religious ones. One god better than another. One god offering heaven, or sex with many women, and the other eternal damnation.

We have educational supremacy. The elite schools and the access they provide to the elite cabal. No meritocracy here. Just advantage from the get go.

We have the intellectual elites, who snooty nose those of lesser intellectual jujitsu. Or those without letters after their name. Or those who haven’t read as widely. I know this act of supremacy well, for I have dished it out to others. 

We have those who have spent years mastering a skill and then adopting the status of supremacy over others. I am all for mastery, yet the true master knows they have never arrived, and the novice offers powerful lessons.

And then we have supremacy combos. The white intellectual bros, upon whom almost all of Western philosophy is built. Which means it is a profoundly flawed philosophy because it misses around 90% of the world. (No women and no men of colour.)

The urge to be supreme over others can often be subtle. It is found in everyday actions: joining a queue, being out in the surf lineup, participating in a class, and not being willing to find humanity in a fellow for whatever supreme reason.

To find out humility and humanity is to be vigilant of the tentacles of supremacy that rise from within. 

And to do this with our team, family and friends.

White supremacy, religious supremacy, political and financial supremacy happen when the many say any expression of supremacy over others is OK.

Let us get back to that inner housework and catch our supremacy virus in the act of early expression.

Photo May 27th 2025, Article written May 30th 2025