Kathmandu— Frantz Fanon’s work on the psychology of colonialism highlighted how oppression dehumanizes both oppressor and oppressed, creating cycles of submission and aggression. Building upon this foundation, a new model – dubbed ‘Wired to Steal’ (W2S) – proposes that colonial violence isn't simply driven by ideology, but is rooted in specific behavioral and neurological mechanisms exploited by ruling classes to maintain power and accumulate resources. This framework analyzes propaganda as conditioning tools for domination rather than accepting them at face value, identifying recurring patterns across settler colonial projects and explaining how entire populations become complicit in systems of theft and inequality.

The Roots of Colonial Psychology

Frantz Fanon’s insights into the psychological wounds inflicted by colonialism remain profoundly relevant. His work detailed how colonial structures destroy and reconstruct identity, fostering a sense of inferiority and ultimately producing submission. This dynamic is further illuminated by scholars like Lara Sheehi and Samah Jabr, whose research investigates colonial subjectivity and the psychological realities of occupation. These analyses connect with W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of a ‘public and psychological wage’ – the social status and privileges conferred by racial belonging that bind individuals to oppressive hierarchies.

A Neurobehavioral Framework

The W2S model draws on neuroscience and evolutionary biology to understand how colonial violence is produced, transmitted, and sustained. It posits that greed drives a self-reinforcing cycle where manufactured identity, fearmongering, selective privilege, and conditioning to aggression – delivered through intermittent reinforcement – can escalate to genocide as a means of dispossession. This process normalizes violence until entire societies are destroyed. The model identifies how ruling classes mobilize populations by manipulating psychological drives, rather than focusing solely on structural dynamics.

Warfare: Defense Versus Offense

The W2S model distinguishes between defensive and offensive aggression, highlighting their different motivations and neurological underpinnings. Defensive aggression stems from fear and focuses on eliminating threats, while offensive aggression aims for control and domination within a hierarchy. Colonial powers often conflate these two forms of aggression, framing offensive actions as justifiable defense to recruit populations into supporting violence. This manipulation exploits the brain’s natural response to perceived threats, overriding empathy and justifying oppression.

The Cycle of Conditioning

Colonizers deploy both defensive and offensive aggression simultaneously. Greed drives a ruling class to employ offensive tactics for theft, constructing an ‘in-group’ that enjoys privileges while designating an ‘out-group’ for exploitation and elimination. Fear is then manufactured and reframed as existential necessity, justifying the initial oppression. This cycle is reinforced through positive rewards – material gain, status, social recognition – and negative reinforcement, creating a conditioned appetite for violence that persists across generations. The model emphasizes how colonial systems reproduce themselves through structural incentives, social normalization, and neurological conditioning.

Applying the Model: The Case of Zionism

The authors argue that the W2S model is applicable to various settler-colonial contexts, including Israel’s actions in Palestine. They contend that the Zionist project exhibits the same patterns of greed, manufactured identity, fearmongering, and selective privilege observed in other colonial systems. The ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank, they assert, are driven by systematic land theft and resource exploitation, justified through narratives of divine entitlement and demonization of Palestinians.

The W2S model offers a framework for understanding how colonial structures endure and identifies potential intervention points – such as fostering empathy, disrupting propaganda, and withdrawing rewards – to dismantle these systems. By recognizing the neurobehavioral underpinnings of oppression, it aims to build solidarity between those fighting against domination.

(With inputs from CounterPunch)

Originally published on abcnews.com.np.