The Mind and Heart Speaks (for Greta Thunberg)

Greta

You have said the right things

made the right, bold, fearless accusations 

clearly.

We are moved by shame and guilt

years of vanity and dreams

small crumbs of hope

even though we know better.

As you say — the science speaks

and I fear your success

like any success

makes it difficult to step back

into the torch bearing crowd

for the next scene.

You must not carry the cross alone

no matter how they implore you.

Rage has a mind of its own

and once released may turn on you

make demands.

Let them go, find a brief peace.

Now we need the choir to sing what is known, 

over and over, until our parts are clear to us.

You are the shofar at sunset

now the rest of us must find

our instruments before the dawn.

Articulated Power: the power we have to affect our world

Agency: power given to a group based on a mandated role, for example a police force having the power to arrest others under certain circumstances.

Analytic: ability to peer through issues to understand meaning and intention.

Artistic: ability to create something of beauty or integrity.

Bully: power taken by effectively intimidating or threatening harm to others.

Causal: opportunity to gain power through preceding events that may or may not be related.

Civic: power obtained and shared within a civil society.

Compassion: ability to identify with the suffering of another.

Covenantal: power structured from and within a group based on group agreements.

Cultural: power given to people who possess a knowledge of their history and heritage. The sharing of power through cultural practices.

Democratic: power based on a system of shared governance.

Empathy: the power to feel what another may be feeling.

Environmental: power given to those living within a supportive environment, either a natural environment that allows agriculture and clean water for survival, or a supportive family/educational environment.

Familial: power given according to the place within a family.

Gall: power taken, often temporarily, through risk and confidence.

Holographic: power seized by layers of conditions and events that inspire awakening, change and mass movements.

Infinite: divinity, god, goddess, creator - the power that belongs to the universe beyond the interests of particular species. Posterity, chaos, impermanence.

Influence: power to persuade others based on knowledge, rhetoric, through the skilled use of communication devices.

Integral: power earned through knowledge, authority, wisdom and justice.

Judgement: power of forming an opinion based on evidence, sometimes from perception which can lead to errors in judgement.

Kindness: helping another or others, without expected gain for the self.

Love: in its true unsentimental form is an elemental energy that binds all beings to relationship, which cannot be owned or controlled by any other power.

Matriarchal: power given to a female head of family.

Misappropriated: power unjustly taken from some to give to interests above and beyond their due.

Music: the power of subliminal tones to soothe, inspire and connect sentient beings regardless of nationality and language.

Natural: the power given to all beings based on the natural traits of their species. Every living thing from weeds to humans have natural powers.

Personality: influence gained through force of personality, such as charisma, confidence and sense of entitlement.

Patriarchal: although this may be thought of as power given to a male head of the family, it is today a set of beliefs and practices based on notions around the nature of masculinity.

Political: means to affect change, influence opinion within government, business, the military and media.

Position: specific and hidden powers given to those who hold a professional or honorary position.

Propaganda: power to organize information to elicit a particular response.

Prophecy:  a wide angle view of present trends as they influence our perceptions and choices, along with possible dangers for the future, and advice on how to overcome the most harm.

Observatory: power of seeing, not just with the eyes, but with the full capacity of mind and body.

Reflection: bending back to consider a thought, an action, to re-think, to re-examine a position.

Sexual: ability to affect or manipulate based on sexual attractiveness.

Spiritual: power that transcends geography and time that enlightens and informs individual and collective interests towards insight.

Socio-economic: power allocated to those within certain classes based on wealth, family lines and education.

Telepathy: communication between minds, thought transference, capacity to understand a meaning which has not been spoken or written.

Understand: to grasp an idea, to comprehend the meaning of words.

Verify: to ascertain the truth of something through evidence or research

Writing: putting thoughts and feelings on paper, using words and sentence structure that readers can understand.

Will: determination to do something, go somewhere, say something.

Xenophobic: isolating minorities with prejudice to create fear, hate, to divide and conquer. As a political tool this usually results in all parties being harmed, including eventually, the ruling elite.

Yes: to affirm, agree to, approve, or contradict a negative.

Zoetic: living, vital energy, anima and animus - the seat of our power and its mortality.

Admittedly we cannot control the future which has been arrested by blinkered interests who really believe we have no defence against money so we might as well worship the power it purchases, but neither can we live in denial that something very beautiful is being raped to death.

Don't be impressed by those who claim to know who to blame and who is the cause, you are an individual living within a broken society and must have some response, so it might as well be the best you can do.

The War

The war is not about conflict between different beliefs, different religions, or races. Neither is it about the roles of gender.

The war is about maintaining a narrative of supremacy over the diversity of life. The war is about making the masses miserable, anxious and mute. The war is about maintaining the grip of exploitation and oppression on the world by sowing and nurturing hate and fear as endless systems.

When opinionated people believe the "real world" is this one of greed, hate and violence, it is because the tools of oppression have convinced them there can be no other way. Our choices and creative imagination have been sucked out of the sphere of neoliberal capitalism.

Education, nature, curiosity, justice and reason are continually battered by a superimposed doctrine often called "common sense" or "normal" that strangles our own thoughts before they mark the blank page, leaving the system of fear and oppression to govern society.

This is why people like Greta Thunberg still have the ability to follow their own instincts. But it comes with extraordinary courage and we see their brilliance clearly.

There was a time when entering the adult world we had to choose between our own understanding of how the world works in order to fit. Our precious freshness and innocence is given up to avoid the label "naive".

Now we are in a time when the world is trapped in sophistry, the game of thrones. As a civilization we have lost our way. Our institutions are broken or silenced.

But the war will not be won until we re-learn the value of our own imagination, our own contributions to the mysteries and sciences of relationship.

Read and Vote October 21

Some reliable media outlets for your election coverage:

Rabble. Climate Crisis Presents Urgent Existential Threat Election  

National Observer 

Globe and Mail, Canada, World, Politics, News 

Chris Bowers, Fire Safety and Good Leadership

Hi Folks,

I would have preferred to put this in the Sounder, but they ‘don’t typically publish letters about specific individuals, especially as it pertains to how well, or not well, they have done their job’, so here we go.

On honouring the shoulders upon which one is about to stand

I’m responding to comments made both publically and through a whispering campaign about Fire Chief Rick Jackson.

The latter, centered around the “Vulcan mind-meld” theory (a belief that someone who stands for something you don’t is under the influence of – apparently posthumous – hypnotisation), is a canard originating from the Weldwood era.

It’s nonsense. Suggesting that someone disagrees with you because they are brain-washed is, at best, hubris.

More public are suggestions that the power structure at the fire department is inverted, and insinuations that the department is therefore not well run.

I’ve worked in organisations with volunteer boards and have observed many more in action. The best of them have always been led by strong, capable executive directors with a clear understanding of the organisation’s history and how to achieve its mandate.

In a true “dream team”, such EDs are supported by board members who recognise and respect that leadership, and contribute their individual talents and abilities to help realise the organisation’s potential.

This is the kind of leadership I’ve observed from Jackson, and it would be both a shame, and shameful, not to recognise his service to the community. So here’s a list of some of his accomplishments:

• Started using the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department’s (GVFD) team of officers as duty officers who could respond quickly to the public when he was not on duty.

• Expanded use of the International Fire Service Training Association system originally instituted by former Fire Chief Jared Hooper. This system was later adopted by the Province.

• Invited Albert Reed, a retired electrical engineer to run for election for the board of trustees. At his own expense, Reed went back to UBC and completed his fire protection engineering degree, subsequently writing a long-term fire plan for the GVFD.

That plan laid out the path to achieving the Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS) insurance rating, which included: purchasing equipment; building a new fire hall; and establishing fire-fighting water sources (hydrants) – currently located at the ferry turn-around, Camp Miriam, Shaw Road, Island’s View Road, and Lockwood Road.

• Led the GVFD to attain Superior Shuttle Tanker Status, and become the first Canadian volunteer fire department west of Ontario to receive the FUS residential and commercial insurance rating – without the support of neighbouring fire depts.

As this rating is the equivalent of having fire hydrants located every 300m around the island, it saves property owners hundreds of dollars more in insurance costs than fire dept. taxes cost us.

• Pushed for the connection between Hess and Coats Rd., and the soon to be completed Church/Spruce connector, as well as secondary exits from all the other existing subdivisions.

• Brought the Lions, HAM radio, Emergency Social Services, Pets and Livestock Services, and other pertinent groups into the new fire hall so that all the emergency and support services would be in one spot, and have a place to meet.

Gabriola has been blessed with a skilled and forward-looking fire chief for many years – one who has done a superb job of keeping the island safe, and of helping the community focus on actions rather than on anxiety during tense fire seasons.

So it’s hardly surprising that, with Jackson leaving, the anxiety in the community has risen – especially around who will be in control in the future.

If the next administration has the competence to manage the job and the anxiety – both the community’s and its own – hopefully that sense of discombobulation can be truncated.

If Jackson has a sense of who those folks might be, given his track record I, personally, will trust it.

For Peace, Truth, and Justice,

Chris Bowers

Interrogating my prediction in the previous post

I predict the Conservatives will get back in power in the October elections, not because of their policies but because the world is controlled economically by the monied class. Not the people with nice clothes and houses, not those with titles, but those we call the ruling elite.

Here I have not explained why I predict this. I have not even posted any of their policies, yet felt okay making this prediction. Of course I have no details on who controls the economy. In a way I am simply using an "elite" as a scapegoat.

It could be said that human's are ruled by ideas — not ideas that are too complex but complex enough to keep us under the control of rulers. There is a varying degree to our acceptance of authoritarian rule. Right now we seem to feel okay with the rule of money as though it's natural, human and comes out of our own desire for posterity.  Or the rule of power. We think it's natural that whoever is in charge will control us and it's not in our best interests to challenge them.

Again I give no examples of ideas that are too complex or ideas that keep us under the control of rulers. Also there is no proof that we feel okay with the rule of money, and that it's normal or natural. Is it that we have been raised with the normalization of capitalism, trained to fit in. How did we get to feel okay about allowing others to control us?  Through the centuries there have been stories about terrible torture and death to those who  question authority -- guess that's why.

We are so enamoured by power we created an all-powerful god whom we cannot see but who can  read our thoughts as well as control the weather.

Apparently hierarchy began with agriculture but I don't have proof because I am not skilled in the kinds of experiments that determine scientific truths.

The greatest power, besides wealth and guns, is charisma. Something that can't be explained but has influence over us. However if we have not cast the media in our own spells there is no leadership by charisma.

Who said charisma is powerful and what exactly enables someone to have charisma?

Most of us struggle to get through the day with our work, our chores, our responsibilities to loved ones. We come up with little wars that we must survive, and to do that we must have beliefs that support us.

This is a huge generalization. I suspect there is truth in it because I listen to how other people cope as well as my own experience.

One integral belief is that we see ourselves as good. Bruised but not broken. Smart but not intellectual. Tolerant to a degree. Informed but not expert. Most importantly we don't have the kind of power that billionaires or corporations do.

Again another generalization but I can think of contradictions that are equally generalized.

Our lack of power tells us we are weak, ordinary not special, willing but not always able. In short — we are vulnerable.  We don't have a corporation of staff or servants who will provide the human wall between ourselves and the outside world. When individuals without agents stand up they are easily gunned down.

I think my own self-esteem has been fed by how others see me but there are others who trust in their own power. How many feel powerless and what is powerlessness anyway?

When it comes to justice and social standards, we are on the front of the battle.  As we know now — the ones who organize the wars are not on the front. They are protected by the blood and limbs of the soldiers employed to be at the front whose names they don't even care to know.

Phrases like "as we now know" assume that we all think the same.

There is enough despair without scraping the system down to its naked function.  We need pretty words, sweet smiles, mythologies and promises. We need to believe that all is well and all will be well.

Who is the "we" who need pretty words and is that a natural thing or a nurtured things. 
So most of us don't want to know the truth. We don't examine the policies too rigorously. We won't argue with friends and neighbours and we need something to believe in. Like benevolent dictators — greatness, charisma, like being better off than others, like the promise of a better life.

What kind of truth do "we" not want to know? What lived experience would make me like benevolent dictators?

Many will eagerly forget the damage done by the Harper government if the promises are sweet. And whatever else, we will not tolerate the universal "mea culpa" required for social change.  All it takes is 40% of the votes to incubate a leadership that will send us back to sleep as the world burns, and a suitable scapegoat is found.

I don't list the things Harper did that I think was damaging. There is a hazy shared memory of policies that myself and some of my friends were horrified by. 

But the reality is — once a scapegoat is found, we (being the masses) have signed our own death certificates.

The scapegoat is the device that gives the ruler permission to kill. In the past it was women charged as witches and Jews charged with the blood libel.  It didn't seem to matter whether the charge was true or not. All that was needed was to identify a small group to blame and then everyone was silenced. Guilt or innocence didn't matter. It was the power given to the man or men who got to choose who would live and who would die. The rest became silent for fear of being the next scapegoat.

To write the original post was very easy. I just recollected my own memories and opinions but if I didn't do a thorough job on claiming "facts" how many citizens do in a capitalist system where media and politicians use myths to gain power?

Prediction 2019 Onward

I predict the Conservatives will get back in power in the October elections, not because of their policies but because the world is controlled economically by the monied class. Not the people with nice clothes and houses, not those with titles, but those we call the ruling elite.

It could be said that human's are ruled by ideas — not ideas that are too complex but complex enough to keep us under the control of rulers. There is a varying degree to our acceptance of authoritarian rule. Right now we seem to feel okay with the rule of money as though it's natural, human and comes out of our own desire for posterity.  Or the rule of power. We think it's natural that whoever is in charge will control us and it's not in our best interests to challenge them.

We are so enamoured by power we created an all-powerful god whom we cannot see but who can  read our thoughts as well as control the weather.

The greatest power, besides wealth and guns, is charisma. Something that can't be explained but has influence over us. However if we have not cast the media in our own spells there is no leadership by charisma.

Most of us struggle to get through the day with our work, our chores, our responsibilities to loved ones. We come up with little wars that we must survive, and to do that we must have beliefs that support us.

One integral belief is that we see ourselves as good. Bruised but not broken. Smart but not intellectual. Tolerant to a degree. Informed but not expert. Most importantly we don't have the kind of power that billionaires or corporations do.

Our lack of power tells us we are weak, ordinary not special, willing but not always able. In short — we are vulnerable.  We don't have a corporation of staff or servants who will provide the human wall between ourselves and the outside world. When individuals without agents stand up they are easily gunned down.

When it comes to justice and social standards, we are on the front of the battle.  As we know now — the ones who organize the wars are not on the front. They are protected by the blood and limbs of the soldiers employed to be at the front whose names they don't even care to know.

There is enough despair without scraping the system down to its naked function.  We need pretty words, sweet smiles, mythologies and promises. We need to believe that all is well and all will be well.

So most of us don't want to know the truth. We don't examine the policies too rigorously. We won't argue with friends and neighbours and we need something to believe in. Like benevolent dictators — greatness, charisma, like being better off than others, like the promise of a better life.

Many will eagerly forget the damage done by the Harper government if the promises are sweet. And whatever else, we will not tolerate the universal "mea culpa" required for social change.  All it takes is 40% of the votes to incubate a leadership that will send us back to sleep as the world burns, and a suitable scapegoat is found.

But the reality is — once a scapegoat is found, we (being the masses) have signed our own death certificates.

Mental Instability creates Political Instability

Invasive Weed

"On Monday, Maxime Bernier sent out a string of tweets attacking Greta Thunberg, the student environmental activist. The leader of the new People’s Party seeks to bring to Canada a poison afflicting many democracies: the collapse of convention."

John Ibbitson, Globe and Mail. 

People: please don't confuse political trends as public voice.   Watch for the tricksters who create public consent. They are in politics, education, business and media of course. (I am not saying these institutions have failed but propaganda is an invasive weed.)

People of integrity who value peace and social justice know how all things must be weighed and considered in our choices — how we react, who we vote for, who we believe, and who we can see through.

Does anyone believe that Trump, Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson are working for the greater good?

Yes they do but you have to check their particular interests. Why do they hate environmentalists, women, refugees and those with different religious faiths? Because their livelihood depends on maintaining a state of self-interested ignorance?

Conversely why do some feel absolute contempt for politics, education, and humanity in general — they are willing to invest in guns, violence and hate?

Setting up barricades against public conversation and engagement, is not a trend, it's a manipulation of public sentiment.

Greta Thunberg has single mindedly used her will to act in a way that gives us an example of how humanity could take back the future.