Episode 143: The Psychology of the Creation of Power Hierarchies and Those they Dominate

In this miniseries Val and Nathan will be covering in-depth one of Val’s recent Sunstone Symposium presentations exploring the psychology around human civilization’s tendency to organize themselves into hierarchies. These hierarchies consist of an empowered group whose authority is dictated by selecting a different group over whom they dominate. These disempowered groups are sometimes called “out-groups” or “deviant others”.

In Episode 1 of this series Val and Nathan cover the following:

Why societies [countries, corporations, churches, middle schools...just to name a few] organize themselves into a dominating few who find identity and cohesion in their rule over designated disempowered out-groups.

How those in power use differences in others to dominate them.

How some disempowered ‘out groups’ are common throughout time and place [gender, class, race] and also how unique out-groups are arbitrarily selected within micro-cultures.

How out-groups come to see themselves as subordinate, weaker, and essentially less-than after generations of oppression and messaging that they were created to be subservient to the dominant.

This Friday’s Episode 2 [accessed via subscription, link below to subscribe] Val and Nathan will discuss how this concept applies to hierarchal structures in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, both through macro-issues such as their historical and current struggles with institutional patriarchy, racism, and issues around disempowering gender and sexual minorities.

They also break down how within the LDS church there are a variety of more subtle hierarchies and disempowered out-groups that may seem invisible because they are so entrenched in the culture and theology.  These more subtle micro-cultural power dynamics hurt people by communicating that the worth of all souls is unequal in the sight of God.

Their desire in shining a light on this phenomenon in this series is to help our community root out the multiple layers of hierarchy to create a community bonded not by the division between powerful in-groups and powerless out-groups, but by equality and Christ-like love.

Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!

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