People Starving, Sick, Lost - oil companies doing great

 https://mailchi.mp/nationalobserver.com/qatar-in-canada?e=bfd991718e

On Our Own Together

 

"If governments were serious about preventing climate breakdown, there would have been no Cops 2-27. The major issues would have been resolved at Cop1, as the ozone depletion crisis was at a single summit in Montreal." George Monbiot. https://www.monbiot.com/2022/11/26/fermenting-a-revolution/

We are on our own together. Reading, talking, thinking, sharing, loving, hating, hugging, raising children. We are at risk of self-destructing. What can we do?

"There are no solutions" said Anatol Rapoport, a well respected mathematician (general systems theory, mathematical biology and modeling of social interaction and stochastic models of contagion)   He contributed to general systems theory, to mathematical biology and to the mathematical modeling of social interaction and stochastic models of contagion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatol_Rapoport.

That shut me up quick.

If humans could bark like dogs we would be barking all the time but since we are human we create problems in our minds to satisfy egocentric needs. We tend to blame the "other" we have created in our own imaginations. Tend to generalize in our minds - until we learn better from people like Rapoport, Monbiot, Atwood, Hippies, and teachers who can tolerate the idea we are not supreme.

I am comforted by the terrifying theories of Gabor Mate as he writes about trauma in his latest book "The Myth of Normal". We could blame the Nazi's for the Holocaust, and the Communists for the holodomor in Ukraine. Blame the British for colonization further traumatizing the innocent people in the lands we invaded, blame the monarchy of Europe for creating class systems, but really we are all in this status seeking judgemental cruelty game desperately trying to prove we are worthy even if we don't own castles or fast cars. 

The rush to feel superior, to prove myself, to believe "I made it" came from not examining myself on the emotional plane where love for myself can be an acceptance there are no others, no foreigners, good guys or bad guys. 

Get rid of the construct not refugees created by politicians desperate for our vote. Or money from "influencers".

"They" are not destroying our planet, "we" can do things to calm the fears of friends and neighbours. We can raise our children with loving kindness and not demand they be "top of the class". We can live until it's our time to die without forcing others to do what we can them to.

Re-post The Art of Power Thich Nhat Han

 The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh

"To me a civilised society is one where people have the time to live their daily lives deeply, to love and take care of their family and community" wrote Thich Nhat Hanh in his book The Art of Power.

The cover slip says "Power is good for one thing only: to increase our happiness and the happiness of others. Being peaceful and happy is the most important thing in our lives and yet most of the time we suffer, we run after our cravings, we look to the past or the future for our happiness".

The world renowned Vietnamese monk laid out five spiritual powers: faith, diligence, mindfulness, concentration and insight. Under each of these he explains how they work as powers. However, none of these tools are like new apps that you can purchase and install for your hand held device. They are gained by practice, by constant mindfulness. And after the discipline we must learn how to handle power skillfully through cutting off our cravings, offering love and cultivating insight.

None of this is new. It's as ancient as the Buddha himself. Sound as the teachings of Jesus, the leadership of Moses and the courage of Mohammed. It's not rocket science; the lessons are not difficult to read, and you don't have to have an Einsteinian IQ to understand. Also there are many popular books about power that offer similar teachings. They are saying that true power comes from within, and if we practice what they preach, we shall be powerful and happy. Every generation has great thinkers and great teachers, capable of imparting the power of their knowledge on the rest of us.

Are the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, Simone Weil, Martin Luther King, Jr., Pema Chodron, Eckhart Tolle, the Dalai Lama - simply new ideologies that could turn against the humanity it proposes to revere, if they suddenly possessed hegemonic weapons?

Why is the measure of power in our current world most noted in terms of its ability to control through death and destruction?  Why do right wing political campaigns appear to win on the premise that fear works? How is it that power, as we have learned it, turns people and institutions into monsters?

Why are some of us, so impressed with this kind of power?

Well, at the moment, I would guess that it takes less effort to avoid self-interrogation, and so we do what is easiest.  In this way we enable bullies, we support systems of oppression.

For me, the difference between the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and other ideologies is the former values life itself and others promote exploitation.

Ultimately it is up to us how we investigate, probe, question and interrogate all the information that competes for our attention. The way of moving forward without causing more pain in this world is through love and hope, and the understanding that even though I am not in control of the world, I am part of its desire to thrive.

What is a society?

 "There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first." Margaret Thatcher. https://truthout.org/articles/chomsky-midterms-could-determine-whether-us-joins-ominous-global-fascist-wave/?

"A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent of members. In the social sciences, a larger society often exhibits stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society

"The labor of women in the house, certainly, enables men to produce more wealth than they otherwise could; and in this way women are economic factors in society. But so are horses." Charlotte Perkins Gilman https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/charlotte_perkins_gilman_402139?src=t_women

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist. War is what happens when language fails. People use technology only to mean digital technology. Margaret Atwood. margaretatwood.ca quotes

What do you think? You have probably been schooled by family and education. And your own observations.

Henry A. Giroux - Democracy And Its Future

 "As critical democratic agencies come under attack, modes of critical agency disappear in the fog of political infantilism, paving the way for the public’s belief in the rhetoric of racial purity, religious fundamentalism, an ecosystem of lies, a withdrawal from the language of social responsibility, an obsession with crime and punishment, and the identification of adversaries as enemies of the state. We now live in a system of manipulation, staged fear and manufactured ignorance that dissolves any vestige of residual disbelief, skepticism and critique itself." 

Henry A. Giroux

https://truthout.org/articles/the-2022-midterms-are-a-referendum-on-the-future-of-democracy-in-the-us/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=ef5aa920-7c5d-4360-a5bb-fdc65ffa5bc2

What is Power?

 

Today I found an excellent article in the Globe and Mail written by Marsha Lederman.

"We are living in what is increasingly a culture of meanness and bullying. And that bullying is infecting not just the public discourse, but the way government operates." https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-bullies-are-taking-over-our-politics-and-our-culture/

This is something that has troubled me for a few years. We live in a complex democracy and there are interests that seem to want to destroy us. The win-at-any-cost seems to be fascist, authoritarian. And we have had many decades of living under the power of the brutal regimes. Many news reports of life lived under the thumb of brutality. More than destroying the people who are targeted we lose ourselves. 

" To stride into life with confidence and poise. I believed this was my own wisdom that observed these but as these were merely the messages I was fed by popular programming, regurgitating the messages by corporate entertainment." http://jacksonmeadvickers.blogspot.com/2022/11/what-is-success.html

In order to have power you have to play with the "big boys" and win at their game ... was the message I received from the culture I lived in and inherited from my ancestors.

Education, money and appearance is the currency of power when we really haven't examined what it is.  At this point I believe power is an appearance of confidence more than getting the last word, shooting judgement, but still the media is impressed with how things look more than what they mean.

Marsha Lederman raises the question in her article? Is everything we have learned about health, security, science and society under the thumb of the bully? Is power everything?

Does the Professor and the Doctor rule the classroom in order to teach the student? Or is it their knowledge?

In my opinion, power is natural integrity. Knowledge glows from the teacher who brings integrity into the classroom. A fully functioning government needs integrity and to understand the grace of gifts that diversity brings to the table. It's a power each thinking person possesses in a system that values life. 

Infinite Power,  “is not a zero sum game but a journey / a stone thrown in a lake / circular ripples emanating outward” and the danger of our age is that we have lost contact with that power, made it something to possess like a personal bank account. In writing these poems Janet hopes for a reconnection to that sacred universal relationship. http://www.ekstasiseditions.com/recenthtml/infinitepower.htm

What Is Success?

 

When I came to Canada with my parents and siblings in 1965 I was determined to win, to be A SUCCESS. I got a job working in offices as a clerk-typist and figured I would rise up and be A SUCCESS.  I didn't know what success was or where I would find it. It was so remote from where I was at the time. I figured it was enough just to have that ambition. Minor skills like typing and filing were enough to begin but not enough. SUCCESS was to be found in my determination to discover what my special talent was.

My philosophy came from television sit-coms which I would watch regularly to see who would win in those shows. What was the message? Be determined to not be ordinary. To be ordinary, to find comfort in friends and family was a waste of a lifetime. I was careful not to express these feelings and assertions because of fear of being ridiculed.

It was not the skill, the discipline, the hard work that I sought but the secret to success. I was really trying hard to be focussed on goals, entertaining myself by reading psychology and philosophy - only to appear interesting. A SUCCESS depended on appearance.

As I look back to those younger days I see a shallow person who didn't even know who she was, who held opinions because she wanted TO BE A SUCCESS. What drove my ambition in those days was ego and imagination. My opinions were on my side except when I fell to depression, which became more frequent as I struggled TO BE A SUCCESS!

I had to be popular. To perform like a confident person. To stride into life with confidence and poise. I believed this was my own wisdom that observed these but as I read it to today these were merely the messages I was fed by popular programming, regurgitating the messages I was fed by corporate entertainment. 

Fortunately someone fell in love with me and we got married. We had three beautiful children. Fantasies took a back seat to the reality of daily living. That saviour was and is my life partner. He stayed with me throughout all my vanities, telling his own wisdom as it was needed throughout the various mental health crises and my hunger for rising above being a nobody.

Depression was always a threat to my mothering so I cleared away thoughts and feelings to focus on the here and now, and learned the wealth and good luck that came with having a home and good friends. My family needed a mother who was present and wise. They gave me the same as I gave them.

Community you can trust needs you to trust community. I love the people who are successful and who have integrity, the people who genuinely care and want to help, who see your friendship as part of their community of wealth. My family and community have saved my life. I didn't have to prove my worth by status and achievement any more than I needed my community to prove they were worthy other than treating others with respect.