Sophia Frantz B.

Limcangco
BSN- 1

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“Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that

you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for

power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

- Loki from Marvel’s the Avengers

Domination. Yes, this word, when heard of, may sound inhumane as if said by a super

villain wanting to take over the world in one of those famous superhero movies. However, what is

the true meaning of domination? According to the Merriam Webster (2018), “Domination is the

supremacy or preeminence over another; the exercise of mastery or ruling power”. Domination

can also refer to any type of colonization in which a person cannot control himself due to another

person’s power or authority. Applying this to the real world, we humans can be dominated through

economical, sociological, political, and religious ways under numerous levels, may it be on a

personal, spiritual, societal, national, or global scale, and no matter who we are, with our

circumstances in this world, we are all held prisoners of domination.

When we are born into this world, we are instantly vulnerable, which make us be easily

manipulated, or dominated, you can even say, by many factors. At birth, we have no control over

the things we do, since our minds are not cognitively developed, and we are not able to talk quite

yet; hence, we only show how we feel through our emotions and actions, and it is up to our parents

to figure out the things that we need. So, how, exactly, are babies being dominated? Let me

reiterate what I have said: “At birth we have no control on the things we do since our minds are

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Conley, N. (2017, April 01). 17 Best Supervillain Quotes From Comic Book Movies. Retrieved from
https://screenrant.com/best-supervillain-quotes-lines-comic-book-superhero-movies/
not cognitively developed.”. One fact can be sure: we can certainly be dominated by our own

parents, not from their sternness towards us, but through parental abuse. It is a fact that not all

parents are abusive, but there is still truth in saying that they can be, since infants and children are

vulnerable to this treatment. Child abuse, may it be mentally, physically, or sexually, is a type of

domination that can affect a child’s mind, causing trauma to the extent of a psychological and

emotional disorder. The domination originates from the parent, preventing the child from having

their own freedom, to the awareness of the domination in the child’s mind. 2As stated by Leonard

Homes (2018), a child who continuously experiences abuse can have: a change of mindset from

being fearless of new challenges to being fearful majority of the time due to trauma, the propensity

to develop depression, a learning deficiency, a weakened ability to process positive feedback, and

social situations being more challenging. As a nursing student, I paid attention to one of my clinical

instructor’s stories of her experience, being in a psychiatric ward dealing with a certain child who

had gone through child abuse. The child had been relocated to a psychiatric hospital due to

consistent suicidal thoughts. Our teacher explained that the reason why she was having these

thoughts was because, at a very young age, she was being sexually abused by her own father and

even being sold to his other friends. Upon hearing the story, I understood why the suicidal thoughts

were all that was in her mind. She was then located to a room where no sharp objects were kept,

preventing her from killing herself. It was all for naught, however, as she still managed to take her

life soon after. When I heard this, I was shocked. How is it possible for a person to kill themselves

if there are no sharp objects in the room? When we asked our clinical instructor the question, she

answered that she got a chair, punched the lights that lit up the room, causing glass shards to fall

2 Holmes, L. (2018, September 1). Childhood Abuse and Neglect Actually Changes Brain Structure. Retrieved from
https://www.verywellmind.com/childhood-abuse-changes-the-brain-2330401
on the floor. She then picked up the glass shards and slit her neck with it. All of this had been a

result of the domination of mind. You cannot control yourself from these things, especially at such

a young age, which can cause many mental disorders to the child. All the child desired was killing

herself, and that was all that she had in her mind, nothing more. What drove her mind to believing

in that isolated conclusion was caused by experiencing these types of traumatic situations, which

has conformed her mind into telling herself that she is useless, worthless and had no purpose to

live in this world. The only solution she found to fix her problems was to just end her life. Yes, I

agree that this was a very dark topic to be discussed about but bringing awareness to this sort of

abuse is very crucial, especially in a millennial world.

Not only can children be dominated by their own minds, but so can teenagers and adults,

alike. Teenagers in the millennial world can be very problematic; I can say this because I am a

teenage millennial as well. We care too much about ourselves and what other people think of us.

We overthink too much, which can lead to negative thoughts and may result to bad actions. I had

to deal with friends who were going through depression, telling me that they just wanted to end it.

I am no professional when it comes to dealing with these types of situations, and, truth be told,

they can also scare me since I need to be careful with the words that are coming out of my mouth

when it comes to comforting them. One wrong move may affect them big time. These people in

these situations are the most vulnerable. When I ponder on how I could care for these people, one

thing goes straight to my head, hindering me from helping them. It is the domination of the mind.

As I have mentioned before, the mind is a very powerful thing that controls everything we do. It

is the mind that causes us to overthink things, and to think negative thoughts. I realized that we

have the power to control our own mindsets. Why are we making it so difficult upon ourselves?

Why are we giving ourselves such negative energy? We have a choice, to make things more
difficult in life than it already is, or to make the best out of it. I don’t know about you but I choose

the second choice. I create my own path and it is me who can dominate my own mind. Domination

of the mind is the most powerful type of domination there is in this world.

When we become adults, other factors seem to dominate our lives; our economic state, our

current political state of our nation, and our sociological state. I think that these three are

interconnected and that if one of the three factors are at risk then this affects the other two. Being

a grown up cannot be compared to life as a teenager. As teenagers we don’t have to worry about

working or earning money, it our parents who worry about paying the bills and to make sure we

are in school. Now skim past the teenage life and to adulthood. If our economic state of living is

low, this can affect our options that we decide to pick. For example, parents want the best for their

child like putting them to a good school. If the parents are in a financial crisis, this limits them

from choosing the best options for their kids. This is an example of an economic type of

domination, the type of domination that can truly limit us from the things that we want to strive

for in life. Being financially unstable can easily be connected to our political state of our country.

Other than the lack of motivation of some people to get a job or to go to school, the politics of our

country, the Philippines, are one of the heavy factors contributing to our economic state. As you

may know, the Philippines are known for their vast amount of natural resources that can boost our

economy. But it’s how our money is used that makes us a 3rd world country. The political power

of our nation is very corrupt. The politicians take our hard-earned tax money and keep it for

themselves. 3As stated by Flores of Global Philstar News (2018), the rate of unemployed Filipinos

soars to 10.9 million in the first quarter (first 3 months) in 2018.

3 Flores, H. (2018, May 01). SWS: Jobless Filipinos soar to 10.9 million in Q1 of 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/05/02/1811354/sws-jobless-filipinos-soar-109-million-q1-2018
 Let me break it down to you. Relating this during the time of Christ, in the socio-economic

aspect, you can say that the life of Palestine revolved around the world of agriculture known as an

“agrarian society”. An agrarian society is a society where the main source of survival depended on

agriculture, herding, mining, and fishing. Due to this type of society is was easier for people to

divide themselves into classes by what they did for a living. This type of social stratification was

based on G. Lenski’s pattern of an agrarian society within the Roman imperial context. These types

of classes would range from political rulers to the beggars, cripplers, and the blind. This can

strangely relate to the Philippine society today since we are also classified according to how much

money we earn. In the Philippines we are divided into the high, middle and lower class. This is

very similar to the classification of an agrarian society in the Palestinian times of Jesus. From our

vast natural resources, we can also say that we are modernized type of agrarian society. I say

modernized because not all people depended on farming, mining, or fishing for a living.

Modernized in a way that we are living in a technological world where technology plays a big role,

economically and sociologically on making our world evolve. Factories, for instance, are one of

our technological advancements that did not exist at the time of Jesus. Construction equipment

like trucks, bulldozers have taken over human productivity for the better. It makes things much

faster and more convenient.

The Philippines are divided to the upper, middle, and lower class. The upper class consists

of the politicians, actors, and high class business-men. The middle class aren’t really rich but not

very poor and can maintain a good standard of living, an example of this are managers, doctors,

and teachers. What’s sad is that the lower class are the ones who contribute most to our economy.

The farmers are located at the lower class since they are employed in lower paying jobs with very
little economic security. 4 According to the 2015 Poverty Statistics for Basic Sectors report,

farmers, fishermen, and children are sectors with the highest poverty incidence among the nine

basic sectors identified by the PSA.

Yes, we have may have a similar society in a way but there is also a contrast between them.

The cultural core values that the Palestinians had at the time were stringent. A few of these cultural

core values are a slave society, a limited-good society, and patron-client relations. A slave society

classified only two certain groups of people. Those who were free, and those who were under their

control of their masters. Slaves had no source of freedom at all which enclosed their mind into

thinking that they are hopeless, worthless, and insecure of their own being. They don’t have the

ability to say as they please and only obey to whatever their masters say. This is an example of

physical domination. The Philippines is a free country in which we have the freedom to do

whatever we please as long as we abide by certain rules. We are free to choose our religion and

whoever we want to believe in. There is no master to slave type of relationship and every individual

has their own rights because without them we are defenseless and vulnerable to domination.

The most important fact to keep in mind is that the greatest thing that was ever given to us

is the power to choose. We can choose to be our own leaders and create our own path. There are

always circumstances that your choices can be affected emotionally, psychologically, and

spiritually in this but it’s really how you choose to live your life that can set you free in a world

full of domination.

4 Marcelo, P. C. (2017, July 4). Farmers, fishermen are PHL's poorest. Retrieved from
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=farmers-fishermen-are-phl&8217s-
poorest&id=147655