Whose fault is it then?

In response to a previous post It Isn't Your Fault, Bob Lane (Episyllogism) responded with the question whose fault is it? Later he replied:  "I would think that individuals have an obligation in a democracy to learn the facts; to learn how to distinguish facts from nonsense; and to be skeptical about all media and government bloviations."

Which means, among other things, fact checking. Tips on how to check facts from politifact.com:
1. Ask the person making the claim for evidence. 

2. Look for what other fact-checkers have found before you.
3. Do a Google search -- and then search again. 
4. Search the Deep Web.  areas of the Internet that aren’t open to surface searching.
5. Look for experts with different perspectives.
6. Check out some books.
7. Anything else?

Plan 30 years Ahead, Start Today

"Without community, politics is dead. But communities have been scattered like dust in the wind. At work, at home, both practically and imaginatively, we are atomised." George Monbiot

Many experience politics as an external force, ruled from above. Politicians that understand this and realize we have been duped, and who want to create a relevant government, are viewed with cynicism and suspicion. It's as though graduation into adulthood means you understand this and any conversation about how to improve our collective lot will be met with derision. 

"Extrinsic values such as power, fame and status" writes Monbiot, make love and peace redundant.  

Monbiot offers  examples of how we might begin to rebuild our shared future: Community shops, development trusts, food assemblies (fresh food directly from local producers), community choirs, free universities where people exchange knowledge and skills in social spaces, time banking where neighbours give their time to give practical help, transition towns, potluck lunch clubs, Men's Sheds where older men swap skills, temporary playgrounds on streets, fun palaces and technology hubs. 

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Apparently these are called "thick networks". They proliferate further ventures and potentially a dense participatory culture that attracts others who have not found the skills to become socially active before.

Think of a service or skill we expect our government and big business to provide and then work to build it in the community among volunteers.

It took 30 years to get from the complex democratic politics of Western societies to this proto-fascism.  We might look 30 years ahead in our conversations about how to reclaim a desirable future.

Happy Easter

[The Resurrection] "teaches us that the oppressive systems of this world do not stand a chance against Love.

It teaches us that you cannot nail Love down – we tried that once and it did not work."

Rev. Mark Sandlin

What is love? Generally love is attachment and can be interpreted in many ways. In the context of the resurrection of a beloved teacher, I believe, it is empathy and compassion. A call to know life around us, not just as labour for capitalism, a trainee for the military, or a consumer for business. The meaning of life is life itself and should be its own reward. A reverence for life does not oppress, or befuddle with sophistry, games and false hierarchy.

We are all related, so whatever hurts others hurts me too. I can see that I have a vested interest in the way humans are treated because I am also a human. This is clear with the threatened use  of nuclear weapons.

It Isn't Your Fault

It isn't your fault that systems have learned 

how to manipulate you with false beliefs. 

It isn't your fault that patriarchy has learned how to kill 

your brothers by making you their robots. 

It isn't your fault you vote for parties who promise wealth 

but only for those at the top when you thought for all. 

It isn't your fault that rulers have philosophers, marketers, strategists 

and weapons while you have only one vote. 

It isn't your fault the oppressors have learned all the tricks 

to keep you coming back for more. 

It isn't your fault that those given the privilege to choose 

life, invested only in control of a woman's body, 

while showing contempt for the needs of the beings

born from that body. 

It isn't your fault your heart has been broken so many times

it severed the link to your brain. 

It isn't your fault the highest public endeavour 

has been turned into a 30 second commercial.

Inequality Threatens Core of Democracy

As Tommy Douglas used to say: “We must never underestimate our opponents; nor should we forget that the closer we come to reaching our objectives, the more vicious and forthright will their opposition become.”

Ed Broadbent warns we "must renew our commitment to a more equal society to head off the spreading of disenchantment with its resultant intolerance and nativism."

Intolerance and hatred is the goal of those who seek fleeting feelings of power because they are, or at least feel politically powerless. Their rage percolates beneath the surface until a rhetoric becomes more vicious and incites attacks such as the murder of six people in Quebec targeted for simply being Muslim.

Right wing fanning of intolerance and hate benefits the ruling elite who fear their privileges will be taken away. When emancipation of the masses becomes normal, new wars, restrictive policies and social chaos are the devices used to shut down democracy.

"We need to change the game. And we have a longstanding injustice to address" says Broadbent. By defending the most vulnerable, we create hope for our children, grand-children, and our selves.

Democracy was not created so we could feel good but for the work that needs to be done to switch from privilege to participation and justice for all.  "A country’s true worth is not measured by how it enables the few" Broadbent reminds, "but by how it provides for the many. Our country needs all the restless, creative energy we can bring to bear to create a brighter future."

Although the task is overwhelming there are ways to find the steady ground to build a future on. Findingsteadyground.com is a website that lists seven things we can do today to defend democracy by being involved.

😐  make a conscious decision about when and where you get news — and what you'll do afterwards.
😐  get together with some people face-to-face to support each other and make sure you stay in               motion.
😐   pray, meditate, or reflect on those who are being impacted by oppressive policies, and extend that love to all who may be suffering.
😐  read, listen to, or share a story about how others have resisted injustice.
😐  be aware of yourself as one who creates.
😐  take a conscious break from social media
😐 commit to sharing with others what’s helping you.

If you have no more resources to focus on anything else but your family and job - just do those things with empathy and compassion. That alone is huge.

National Poetry Month III

Treasure Your Grief

Not like a piece of jewellery kept in a box

but a scar across your face

a house plant blooming where sun

glares through a window.

Go back to that time—

the sunny afternoon in the park

you didn’t question

your feelings sweeping you out

from childhood to another’s body

so close it enters like a possession

a desire that doesn’t name itself

cut by fear

this is how women are destroyed

and you run away

shut down the portal to pleasure

as you will do again and again.

Go back to the image you hold onto

the someday promised, this or this

the girl who gives because she feels

the movie star everyone wants but can’t have

the radiant flesh, the brilliant idea

all yours if you play your cards

right not wrong. Right not left. Right not alone,

starving or battered.

New dove, shapely, winged and wise, goddess poised

on the edge of a mountain in the clouds

ready to jump or fly to eternal glory

shattered by all the missteps, mistakes and failings

the undeniable proof of your unremarkable humanity

your place in the anonymous family

and all the ways you have been let down or built up

washing the cloth of invincibility.

You’ll dream of long corridors searching for a baby

taken at birth to find she was never yours

and in the mirror no tragic victim looks back at you

no Cinderella or Joan of Arc.

Grief is not loss but inheritance, your fire,

your form. Grief is the callback to play yourself

with your sweat, your fear, challenged by desire

to answer the breaking Earth as though she were a heart

or some other organ, her blood rushing through

your own veins. As though you were yourself

a mind created to save her and after all these years

you learn the only thing you can be sure about

are the many opportunities you threw away.

There are no happy endings.

There is struggle. There is gratitude.

And there is silence.

(Infinite Power, Janet Vickers, Ekstasis 2016)

Why Do Civilizations Collapse?

What will become of America, Canada, Britain and other nations that are struggling with democracy as it slips into corruption, is a question I keep asking.

I look for answers anywhere and everywhere. George Monbiot, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jonathan Sacks, Unitarian Universalism and other writings.

Sacks' recent post from his newsletter Covenant and Conversation, gives us a concise overview of other civilizations that have come and gone. But the part I was most interested in was near the end of his essay. He writes that civilizations come to a point where there are so many problems they cannot fix them, so they look for sacrifices - symbolic or real. 

"Surely there is a lesson here for the Jewish people today: Plan generations ahead. Think at least 25 years into the future. Contemplate worst-case scenarios. Ask what we would do, if… What saved the Jewish people was their ability, despite their deep and abiding faith, never to let go of rational thought, and despite their loyalty to the past, to keep planning for the future." 

This advice asks us to engage, no matter what our faith or heritage,  to think and to act with integrity - it is not magical thinking. The problem is for us all to deal with.

National Poetry Month

Apology

Power is an obsession in the Fourth Estate.
What does it mean anyway in terms of your life?
In how we talk to each other?

What will it save you from?
The military, government, knowledge, love?
Each decade tells us what we think we need
is out of date.

Are we prisoners laying bricks for new prisons
trapped by words with limited definitions?
Shall we throw up our hands and say
that’s life isn’t it?

Even if we agree the problem is not our nature
but the way language keeps us from feeling and so
we declare war.

Against what? Hegemony?

Seems no matter what we choose
the rules of engagement have found a way
to win forever and we could endure oppression if it was fair ...

The word will not leave us or set us free.

We are thin sticks holding the ocean’s waves
in our small hands and our large conceit.
Strike out at anything, small or large,
and we strike against our willingness to surrender
to the infinite power we can’t control.

But what if I dared invent new words
like ‘thought-birds’ and ‘quest-frack’
and my multiple selves took care of the ‘I’ in the common ‘we’.

Eventually the hyphen might disappear and I might say:

compassion, empathy, analysis, or nurture 

and return the power to my heart.

Am I ready for such a radical departure?

(from Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016)

For more information on National Poetry Month click here