Moral Emotions in Prelinguistic Infants

"In various experiments, prelinguistic infants show a rudimentary sense of fairness, justice, empathy, compassion, and generosity, along with a clear ability to distinguish between kind and cruel actions. Morality is intrinsic to the human condition." Embracing Interconnectedness - Patterns of Meaning. Jeremy Lent.

Aware of a bias in myself that favoured kindness and moral responsibility, I find Neoliberalism a failure in the way it has established a pseudo-ethical regime which encouraged isolation, selfishness and cruelty over our species tendency to be compassionate in a basic sense of fairness.

This allows the individual to believe all is well as long as he is on top.

To do this a conscience must continually congratulate the ego for these 'achievements'.  

To say we are destroying our future is too neat and tidy a claim.

What is actually happening is the group attacks the individual  who is, for whatever reason (different religion, different colour skin, different fashion, language or abilities) is placed on the bottom rung in the estimation of the most articulate and cunning bully in the pack.

It assures that vulnerable people lose hope of belonging, it traumatizes those who are already traumatized, and makes others in the group feel insecure and unsafe.

It ultimately destroys civilization as we know from the rise of Nazi power.

It announces that the value of everything depends on where it lies in the pecking order, and so you have young teens ridiculing victims of rape and ultimately creates a society entertained and in awe of brutality.

We have known this from the Roman Gladiator sports, from the contempt shown to missing and murdered indigenous women after the cruelty of residential schools.

Everything and anything that is supportive and of true value like the arts, creative talent and problem solving is trashed. Children soon learn that they have no intrinsic worth, and the only survivors are psychopaths and sociopaths, applauded for all that they can destroy.

War celebrates killing, cruelty and death as though power is fed by the number of lives crushed. Refugees lose everything and in such a system we are all refugees because life means nothing. People, plants, animals, land, air and water is stolen, exploited and poisoned.

The duality of this is authoritarianism. Individuals will choose fundamentalist, fascist, systems in the belief that they will be safe. But these systems fall into the same despair they are attempting to run from.

As individuals we are genders, races, and classes — fighting to maintain our space, our 'nation'. But cunning psychopaths know how to manipulate us into giving up what little we own for the sake of a false sense of security.

The current conflict in Canada on pipelines, first nations territories, energy and jobs is one of those manufactured conflicts where ultimately all will be destroyed — either by poverty, violence and trauma — while the owners of the oil industry who live thousands of miles away will be the only ones to profit.

Blackmail from Dirty Politics.

"What should the Prime Minister do? The choice is easy. If Teck Frontier is approved, the extortion tactics will be used again and again with every new oil and gas project. You don’t “pay” blackmailers. Reject Teck Frontier." National Observer. Jason Kenney Blackmailing Canada Won't Solve Climate Crisis.

The main drive of dirty politics is to demean a portion of the populace and hold up the opposite. Praise the loyalty of unquestioning, silent groups. Whether it's keeping children in cages or caning them when they fail to choose the right answer.

The conditioning of white men demands a silent muscularity, a competing for top dog, an anti-intellectual hardness, and indifference to the suffering of those who don't win. The winner takes all and the loser is tortured to death.

This sounds extreme but the goal of those who seek power use extremes to stay in power. It doesn't matter whether the system is capitalist, communist, authoritarian or democratic -- it is how information is conveyed that reveals what you are voting for.

Fascism now threatens the whole world and those who are operating it do not care about you or any living creature other than themselves.

George Monbiot has a thorough understanding in the roots of Fascism. “These guys are going to die in the streets like cockroaches – and that’s how it should be.” Bolsonaro is quoted fomenting hate towards the indigenous people trying to protect the forest.

Fascism puts people at the bottom of the pecking order. People who have nothing to gain but who support it are weary and overwhelmed at all the opinions and arguments dominating the waves in sound and sight.

What does it mean?

What does it mean to be marginalized

 illegal, homeless, a blight on the landscape?

What does it mean when we risk polluting 

our water and food source for the economy?

What does it mean to destroy the air

we need to breathe?

What will our future be if we are willing

to sacrifice our home for quick solutions?

What if this planet is ruled by extortionists 

who silenced these questions

so that our taxes can pay even more tomorrow 

and the next day until there is nothing left

but solid rock glowing in a distant universe?

What does it mean when we are offended 

by people who have nowhere to wash

yet welcome those who hold all life as ransom

for the glory of their personal ego?

Rebecca Solnit - Says so much in one article

"We are a country at war, but who that “we” is – in a nation where so many have been so disenfranchised – should be central to the conversation. There are more guns in the US than people, and the rhetoric of gun rights has been used to defend the rights of these killing machines to spread everywhere – classrooms, Walmarts, public places, homes where children have access to them." Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian.

Psychopathic Invasion of Political Leadership

In George Monbiot's post on outer turmoil he lists and analyzes the biggest problem of our age: the corruption of leadership.

"A few years ago, the psychologist Michelle Roya Rad listed the characteristics of good leadership. Among them were fairness and objectivity, a desire to serve society rather than yourself, a lack of interest in fame and attention, and resistance to the temptation to hide the truth or make impossible promises."

The Journal of Public Management & Social Policy list the characteristics of leaders with psychopathic, narcissistic or Machiavellian personalities which is something I have observed even in non-profit societies and has deeply disturbed me. Manipulation and a talent for deceit without remorse which has turned the world from one where we struggle for social fairness to one that reveals a complete contempt for life.

We must be vigilant to the ways that politics (with the support and help from media) misrepresents trends in human values. The display of hate towards women in Congress in the US during a Trump rally is a captured moment "showing support" for his racist ideas.

If we are willing to believe that this president has majority support in the US he can keep behaving like a pop star instead of the leader he is supposed to be, while the masses accept the degradation of the nation, under the pretence that this is what greatness means.

People who support movements of hate either want power at the cost of social justice and freedom for their community kin, or they don't know what they want and are happy to follow whatever trends are presented to them. People who believe that celebrity is leadership and those who rise to the top must be worthy of the adulation promoted by their publicity teams are dangerously naive.

It's past time for us to evolve beyond the circus trickery of politics and understand that the easy way out is never out but down. This means taking responsibility for our part in the drama.

Us and Them

There are some billionaire hedge fund owners and multinational CEOs who donate to divide civil society by investing in sites like Breitbart and hate media outlets like Fox News.  CommonDreams.org 

"Investigative journalist Jane Mayer wrote a book about their efforts titled Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.

“In April of 2016, the SPLC documented Breitbart’s embrace of extremist ideas and racist tropes such as black-on-white crime and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. Further analyses showed how under executive chair Stephen Bannon, Breitbart’s comment section became a safe space for anti-Semitic language.”

Anti-Union groups like Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research have been funded in the millions.

What makes social justice and equality such a threat towards these elites that they  fund parties who are willing to take babies away from their mothers, incarcerate African Americans, support anti-semitism, Islamaphobia, denigrate indigenous people and support pornographic misogynist rape culture?

Since Canada follows US trends we can expect that right wing political parties are also supported by Corporate capitalist elites. Even CBC news has been tainted by right wing apathetic tones.

The spike in "public" support or acceptance of right wing attitudes came suddenly after Donald Trump got elected.  Our Prime Minister changed his tone from holding up indigenous rights to cheering for pipelines.

In a nutshell, the white supremacists have revealed to my imagination this Orwellian animal farm scenario:

People who are brown, Islamic, Jewish, female, intellectually curious, LGBTQ and poor - are the enemy.  Who else is left?  The ruling elite along with those who can be manipulated by propaganda.

So what is next if this hierarchy remains and rules?  A planetary playground for billionaires and their servants. One way or another - all life that cannot be exploited will be removed. Which takes us back to the Nazis who imprisoned and killed anyone who didn't subscribe to their goal of world domination.

In some states Christianity has been hijacked and changed to an evangelical cult to not only accept the brutality of Trump's campaign but to make him a God. Forget the centuries of Christian teachings of Jesus. The second coming is Money. It can change everything that invests in its supremacy as long as humanity has been emptied of conscience and compassion.  It is built on contempt for all natural life.  It is power without flesh. The worship of the monster revealed as greed, which will bring suffering to everything that is beautiful and worth living for.

Addiction, drugs and pollution will be the weapons of those who cannot tolerate any other kind of power beyond their own. If the land is flooded and the forests on fire, they will purchase land where it is not.

It won't be capitalism or communism or fascism - it will simply be the dark hole of power, the mindless, heartless machine. There will be no conscience to reveal the suffering of ourselves or others. Language will dissolve into clicks.  Knowledge will be erased. Whatever beauty can be found in nature will be a desert.

So if we do not voice our shared or diverse views, if we are irritated by people who have different experiences, people who have different faiths and wear different clothes, and you look forward to a time where everyone is just like you, and everything is what you like - you are helping the silencing of humanity.

Beauty is not always pretty

There are two dominating narratives that want to explain the development of human history.

One is the narrative of empires, how they have conquered, maintained their control, and how the masses benefitted or suffered from their rule, and how their power came to an end.


The other is the history by literature, science, art and freedom of expression -  which amount to the quality of life as it is lived by the common people.

This second narrative reveals that whenever the rule is centralized and the conversation is about making a society "great again", the quality of life for most of the people goes down. The ruling party uses violence, cruelty and fear to dominate the masses while claiming this is what the masses want. However the voice of the commoner has been taken away and replaced with an ideology that demands obedience, and the "greatness" is a  rehearsed display of power over the masses - like marching armies, missiles displayed on wheels, displacement of aboriginal peoples, refugees, concentration camps and wars.

"Greatness" demands sacrifice and the health and happiness of people is seen as unaffordable. Bit by bit, day by day, the masses lose their freedom to a cause, and the chaos of democracy is sacked for the sake of fascism. Life is a resource to be used not celebrated, not lived for pleasure. Resources are taken from the masses and warehoused in the castle of the ruler.

Any political policy can be identified as moving towards centralized power by taking power away from people, or governing from the roots up, moving towards shared power and responsibility.

The less engaged the masses are the easier it is to lie about where the power is coming from.  When people vote for authoritarian rule we need to look more closely at why or how oppression can be internalized as self-interest.

When people get involved in democracy by engaging with the problems and organizing change, it's not as easy to misinform the public. For example when people say they are against social services such as birth control, sex education, health plans, libraries, anti-poverty, affordable housing and community development - you will find massively funded campaigns from a ruling elite.

No matter how well meaning we are as members of a diverse society we are addicted to the promise of solutions, that mostly involve a power-over initiative taking power away from the people and giving it to an "authority".  In that way we lose some of our agency, our compassion and the hope for progress.

Beauty is that unwelcome moment when I realize that I was wrong,  the truth is available if I look for it, and my friends don't abandon me.  It's okay to have opinions as long as I am not more attached to them than the truth. Beauty shines through those moments when I see that none are right all the time and it's more than okay.

Simone Weil on Political Parties

Andrew Nikiforuk writes in The Tyee about Simone Weil's conclusion that political parties are dedicated to “killing in all souls the sense of truth and justice.” This is not a call for the end of democracy, but a re-engagement in democratic expression and activity on behalf of the common people. It's not democracy's fault - it's politics.

Failed democracies are dangerous because of the implication that it's citizens have failed and need to be told what to do.

Nikiforuk writes that we are aware of broken promises no matter what party is in power. Hearing that Justin Trudeau won the election in 2015 with his promises of writing wrongs towards women, the indigenous people and making environmental concerns a priority - I was relieved because Trudeau's platform promise was based on compassion and social justice.

Then when Trump was "elected" I felt deflated. It was clear to me that the next few years would be built on hate, misogyny and scapegoating, and that any movement towards fairness and social health would be scrapped.

What hit home most was the thought our future would be governed by anger, spite and a lust for revenge. This is because I know there are many in Canada who long for the mythical sense of might makes right.

Suddenly our PM seemed to change direction. Buying an oil company to build pipelines for tankers on a fragile narrow coast with our pensions, screams of a totalitarian state's contempt for life.

In Europe, between the first and second world war, Weil "watched one party after another betray the best interests of working people, and saw "that political parties seem designed to destroy any vestige of democracy as well as any opportunity for free thought."

Might will do everything it can to convince the people they are powerless and worthless. We have come to an age where it is very difficult to believe otherwise.

I fear the long slow spiral down to the bottom will find new ways to return to barbaric rule. Public hangings, torture, hunger and fear will be on display. It will be painful and grievous. It will hurt physically, psychologically and spiritually. All while its leaders will preach of saving the most vulnerable, saving the economy, evening out the access to opportunity, and the long march toward progress.

In Orwell's "1984" there comes an end where the protagonist is praying to die, screaming for his life to end. The thinking sensitive being commits suicide allowing the hollow men to march on.

Voting for fascist parties is a kind of suicide. It's the temper exploding when the heart has been broken too many times.

I am thinking about how to create conversations on being human. Circles where artists, poets and musicians can gather with economists, engineers, and labourers to share their thoughts and the feelings they cannot share in public. Circles where those who did not have the opportunity to attend higher learning are heard and have the opportunity to hear others without feeling judged or put down.

Using terms like civic education or consciousness raising implies a need for "self improvement" - terms that are very threatening to those who have been rejected in so many ways, who can only feel powerful when they beat up someone who has less power than they.

Humanity with its many faults feels hope and despair, but politics is ruled by the notion of control, of rising above the fragile human ego. However a political party soon descends into strategies to win. Politicians focus on winning, and this requires a different game plan, losing sight of its original goal.

This is why we must pay attention and let them know what we think is best for our world. It's a matter of endless care and investment of energy.

The Real Crisis

"No, the real crisis is an upsurge in hatred — unreasoning hatred that bears no relationship to anything the victims have done. And anyone making excuses for that hatred — who tries, for example, to turn it into a “both sides” story — is, in effect, an apologist for crimes against humanity." (Paul Krugman, Return of the Blood Libel, New York Times.         https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/opinion/blood-libel-trump-immigrants.html)

Paul Krugman writes about how Hitler's hatred of Jews became a "cause" for his campaign to find glory in killing as many people as possible.

The fact that hate drives wars is a sordid economic boon, while the lives of decent people are disrupted and destroyed. This is true for any system of government.

In the early part of the last century there was a theory, probably created by Russian secret police, that Jews were planning to take over the world, writes Krugman. As Russia was about to begin the communist revolution through fascist means they embarked on spreading fear through the charge and imprisonment of writers and artists who expressed "anti-Soviet ideas". Krugman writes the steps and causes of the rise of hate across Europe in a clear way. His article is worth reading.

In my less detailed way of finding patterns I propose that a system rules people until the people see the errors of it, then as movements to resist grow, up pops another scapegoat and theories are manufactured to point the blame to a small powerless group. 

This is achieved by billionaires and the ruling elite who fear being sacked by the masses. Media helps to spread this hate as people begin to feel more trapped by a system that punishes them for being poor and powerless.

Many wise people have warned that the rising gap between haves and have-nots will lead to fascism and violence.  It has been documented in the past.  But those most impressed by the anti-immigrant movements have been duped, manipulated by the emotions that men dare not speak of.

How can any self-respecting macho man admit that he is vulnerable to forces he cannot control no matter how strong he tries to be? Whatever the system is and whatever promises are made by well meaning leaders the pattern always ends up with the psychopath on top. Men love the apes that pound their chest and roar and feel contempt towards the poorest most bullied and abused.

This is called projection - projecting our fantasies onto others, in stories, songs and politics.

If you go to the article written by Krugman there is a picture of a white man with his distorted mouth open as though he is screaming some hateful epithet. This is the face of the human who has lost hope for the future while centralized power organizes humanity's expulsion from the commons. This is the face of the man who has been purchased, who is trapped and cannot find a way out.

The Depth and Breadth of White Supremacy

Because the media keeps reporting on the events, utterances and activities of broken men, I think concerned citizens must jump in to offer a different view.

We are vulnerable to fashions and movements that cause tremendous suffering, such as the Thirties in Europe.

Using Hitler's playbook we know that human nature can be misrepresented and conditioned into robotic bodies to serve a political fantasy such as racial superiority. Using different words I might say the men of Europe were asked to give up their reality, their health, their livelihood, their intelligence, for an imagined glory, which meant death.

Nations of people starved so that money could be invested in global killing machines. The mental health of these "Aryan" people was battered by trauma. We lost limbs and lives, husbands and sons, fathers and mothers, wives and daughters, for the glory of war.

It meant that arguments, doubts, conversations and worry about the future were temporarily wiped out for the beat of the goose step. It meant that people no longer had to solve human problems because they could hollow out their minds and replace them with propaganda. There were only two choices to make - obey the rules and die, or be tortured to death.

Does that look like highest attainment for humanity? Does that feel like a celebration of life?

This either/or scenario didn't begin with Hitler or the Nazi's and the social conditions that were causing men to give up hope and turn to hate, began through other men who had power over the people.  Those who dictated the rules of austerity were not the ones who would go hungry.

You don't have to be a scholar to know that glory is about sacrificing life for power. Life is presented as a burden, and the only true achievement is the ability to control the lives of others.

This is not new and has been said more profoundly by Hannah Arendt, George Orwell, Noam Chomsky, Margaret Atwood, and millions of poets whose work is mostly ignored.

The culture of Europe was destroyed in politics, wealth, life and health while a few got rich. Now this hate has been ignited by North American opportunists to defend capitalism against the human conscience.

What did Hitler achieve for the world? A brutal example of how low humanity could sink and the proof of our capacity for cruelty. But also a warning to us all about what it is we need to fight against. Not the stranger but the shadow in ourselves.

White supremacy is about turning human souls into vacuous puppets in order to destabilize and destroy civil society and ultimately create a smooth path for megalomaniacs to do as they please without criticism or obstruction. Is this what we want?

Defending Democracy: by Russell McNeil

Why I am fighting for the survival of democracy, and why you must too: The Greek idea of democracy and the Roman idea of civitas are not just clever governing principles. They are concepts deeply embedded in - and part of - the natural law of the universe. Defending democracy isn't an option. You and I are required to defend democracy with every fiber of our intellect - even to the death. We have no option here. Read on:

The only stoic commandment (more a direction than a “commandment”) is to “live according to nature.” This means we are directed by nature to exercise virtue-based critical thinking in all that we do. Nature, meaning nature’s law, is the model we follow, because nature’s law is perfect; it is beautiful as all perfect things must be; and, we are drawn to beauty, through an attraction called love; and love brings us to the place where beauty and truth converge. We are drawn to the Law by our love of its beauty. When we get close we behold its truth. As a physicist/scientist, I get this. You must too:

Beauty is truth,

truth beauty,

that is all you know on earth,

and all you need to know. 

~ John Keats

This is more than a quaint ancient idea. This view of nature as a divine cosmic dance, animated by universal law, survives unscathed after nearly 2,500 years. If you or I were magically transported back to the steps of the Agora in the Athens of 350 BC and introduced to Xeno or Chrysippus – the two founders of Stoicism – the news we would share with them about what we know now about nature in the 21st century - would be met with rapt attention, but not disbelief.

Our stoic ancestors would be impressed with our new wisdom about the mechanics of nature with its four or five basic laws – a mechanics now in search of a Grand Unified Theory of Everything. But interestingly enough – as philosophers - they would ask themselves what new insights our modern laws brought in their pursuit of self knowledge, to know oneself? Might quantum mechanics – for example – be read in ways that would allow me to know myself better?

But the stoics had already read a great deal into the law of nature, long before we moderns uncovered its recent secrets: the Greeks understood - at least qualitatively – four ancient laws: 1. Gravity (they called it affinity); 2. Constancy - in essence the idea of energy conservation; 3. Entropy – the necessity and normality of change; and 4., that cosmic cycles lay at the heart of the rubric of nature. These four ideas are still in play – although many others have been added in the past few thousand years.

These four older “laws” - were read by ancient stoics allegorically - as parables - with deep portent for human purpose. Lest you think that the ancient stoic idea expired with the birth of Christianity - think again. The Christian world view borrowed heavily from stoicism and included this idea too. The four Christian gospels were to be read allegorically as parables that were to guide our actions in life. Nature - according to the Christian view - was to be seen as a fifth gospel which also was intended to be read in this way.

These readings of nature’s law (shared by ancient theists and non-theists alike) taught generally that actions and attitudes that alienate us from nature are not rational. Specifically, anger and dishonesty have no meaning in nature, and hence have no purpose in life. Nor does nature ever act in a thoughtless way – nature follows its internal law with unerring perfection. Humans are also social – nature teaches us that through its various affinities. This implied harmony in nature requires humans – who are also in nature - to work in concert and cooperation with one another. And so in stoicism, the Greek idea of democracy and the Roman idea of civitas – were Stoic influenced reason derived attempts to mirror nature’s law in civil law – human law - and these designs became the templates for our modern civil contracts: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the constitutions and charters of most modern liberal democracies, including our own Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

I must defend democracy - and you must too. My survival, your survival and the planet's survival depend on this. We have no other options. #TheResistence

Other post from Russell McNeil CONFRONTING EVIL 

Wall of Silent Screams

There are times when there is so much bad news it creates a wall of silent screams. Headline after headline supports the ambition of centralized power that holds humanity in a prison of dread and fear. This is more than just a feeling, it is the body's sense that everything created is about to crash. A tsunami coming in slow motion and you know there is nothing you can do to stop it.

More than the threat of fascism it's as though life itself is atomizing into drunken parts. My own body losing muscle, my head unable to think, my fundamental ability to survive lost. Something much larger than politics is invading my universe in a way that I cannot walk through. This can't be explained by the economy. It is an organic response. Should it be ignored or should I try to understand it?

To admit to my own vulnerability is not weak, it's a maturation of my ego, a willingness to move beyond my self interested fantasy to see what is happening outside the bubble. I look for the skills in others I do not possess and call on the skills I have to build a community.

There have been other people I admire for the skills and abilities they bring. I look for strength in diversity. I look for those who can do the things I can't do and feel gratitude for all that they give. I go to them for advice and give advice when I am asked for it.

The hub of community where people have learned how to be contributing stakeholders brings me a sense of peace and comfort. However, as much as I respect them I don't always agree with what they say and do, and so we must learn how to communicate without injuring. My community is not my possession but part of the wealth that I enjoy.

Life is easier when the place we live in is not threatened by authoritarian institutions. Part of my humanity is to keep learning how to engage with my neighbours so they are safe - because when they feel safe it makes my world safer to explore.

There is so much more I need to learn about being human, about how to endure discomfort, uncertainty, or pain. How to find relief from anxiety.

Karen Armstrong writes that compassion is the way we find relief from fear of the unknown. A society that honours equality is more confident in searching for ways to solve community problems such as alienation and loneliness. We feel safer to help those who need help. We learn how to be experienced stakeholders. We can develop the insight that our wealth is the quality of our relationship to one another, and that collecting stuff does not satisfy forever.

But now, in the democratic world, we are threatened by a hatred for the other. The blaming is isolating us into fierce camps. Will we be investing in weapons so that communities protect themselves from the outside while living in denial inside?

Hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, road rage, intolerance are not separate issues - they all arise from decades of structural abuse. We cannot trust the police, the courts, the teachers, the policy makers and our doctors when civil society dissolves into a cauldron of competing egos filled with disappointment, dreading what the future may bring.

Resisting trends that we do not agree with is one way to maintain sanity. When Bertrand Russell responded to an invitation from Sir Oswald Mosley to debate  fascist ideas, he did it in a way that clearly defined his values without insulting the values of his friend.

"Thank you for your letter and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism.
I feel obliged to say that the emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us." Bertrand Russell

We must call on our own humanity to protect what we hold dear, and cannot expect to be protected by abusive power if we disown our civic estates.

Some Wise Advice Circulating

Amended Post (especially related to #1 below) found on Be a King's FB page,  However I did find most of this on  Bernice King calls Shadow Banning President Trump.

Some Wise Advice Circulating: 

1. Use his name sparingly so as not to detract from the issues. I believe that everyone, regardless of their beliefs, deserves the dignity of being called by their name. However, this is a strategic tactic. While we are so focused on him we are prone to neglect the questionable policies that threaten freedom, justice and fairness advanced by the administration.
2. Remember this is a regime and he's not acting alone;
3. Do not argue with those who support him and his policies--it doesn't work;
4. Focus on his policies, not his appearance and mental state;
5. Keep your message positive; those who oppose peace and justice want the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow;
6. No more helpless/hopeless talk;
7. Support artists and the arts;
8. Be careful not to spread fake news. Check it;
9. Take care of yourselves; and
10. Resist!

Keep demonstrations peaceful. In the words of John Lennon, "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight! Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor."

When you post or talk about him, don't assign his actions to him, assign them to "The Republican Administration," or "The Republicans." This will have several effects: the Republican legislators will either have to take responsibility for their association with him or stand up for what some of them don't like; he will not get the focus of attention he craves; Republican representatives will become very concerned about their re-elections.

When it's worse than you already think it is

This blog is going to begin a new project - The Mind-Heart Advent Calendar which will operate like the Christmas Advent Calendar but instead of chocolates or gifts, each day will be a gift of life-affirming community to recall our humanity. Rather than the oppressive messages of capitalism which have dominated corporate media.

Says Chris Hedges: "Our capitalist democracy ceased to function more than two decades ago. We underwent a corporate coup carried out by the Democratic and Republican parties. There are no institutions left that can authentically be called democratic."

Hedges points out the "long and ruthless corporate assault on the working class, the legal system, electoral politics, the mass media, social services, the ecosystem, education and civil liberties in the name of neo-liberalism has disemboweled the country."

Noam Chomsky compares this time to late Weimar Germany.  It has left the nation a decayed wreck. We celebrate ignorance. We have replaced political discourse, news, culture and intellectual inquiry with celebrity worship and spectacle.

Chomsky, in the article published in April 2010 predicted the sweep of right wing Republicans: "We will be told that white males are a persecuted minority. We will be told we have to defend ourselves and the honor of the nation. Military force will be exalted. People will be beaten up. This could become an overwhelming force. And if it happens it will be more dangerous than Germany."

Although I live in Canada - a different nation, we shall be impacted and we are threatened by this movement as much as Europe was threatened by the Nazi's.  The nature of our society with its deniers, thugs, and public activists is still the same.  Those who seek power know how to divide us and I am hoping that this blog might help inspire us to come together to respond.

Every day beginning December 1st this blog will post a new quote, image or aphorism or advice that will link us to our humanity to fight the darkness of hate and ignorance. Not by calling names to people but by calling out our vulnerability to defeat in spirit.  Please sign up to receive these posts as they become available every day. Also if you wish to contribute a piece please contact me via the comment section.

Fantasy Industrial Complex and the Anthro-Hyena

"Here’s a hypothesis, ugly, uncharitable, but given our recent history it begs inquiry: most of the time most Americans don’t know what’s real any more. How else to explain Trump, a billionaire on an ego trip capturing a major party’s nomination for president?" Ben Fountain, The Guardian.

America is not alone in this.  Fantasies or lies have built great civilizations.  Take for example the Doctrine of Discovery where Europeans came to America, killed off the people living here by various means, stuck their flags in the earth and claimed it available for their use. And what about the belief that man was chosen by God to rule over the earth? Centuries keep spinning stories of superiority to disguise the brutality of our greed. All of the problems are caused by the notion that the very best of us rise to the top to rule over the rest, be they kings, emperors, presidents or CEO's.

Which brings me to Trump "the ultimate creature, and indisputable maestro, of the Fantasy Industrial Complex" writes Ben Fountain in The Guardian. Trump was mostly known for "The Apprentice", a reality show based on the fantasy of success, wealth and power.  These being the trinity of ultimate purpose in life, which has been, well interrogated by Eleanor Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and George Carlin.

But most of the oppressed shy away from any news or information about the cause of their oppression. According to one Trump supporter interviewed, there is absolutely no need to read articles or be curious. Now the "proof" of a leader's ability to rule the world is the Nielsen ratings.  The more viewers you attract the better person you are.

Some might point out the lack of intelligence, integrity, good policy, or respect for others, but now none of this matters because the Anthro-Hyena, has succeeded in silencing the human voice of vulnerability for the doctrine that power is the only thing that counts.  And those of us who have come to believe there is no such thing as personal power will unwittingly vote for guns, big mouths and cars, in order to survive.

The sad thing is we won't survive a Trump presidency, and if we do we may wish we hadn't. Then we will know in a very painful way that no matter what poetry, science and our mother's love has taught us, no matter what complex ways we have of fixing problems, no matter how often good people advise us not to support sociopaths - it will be too late to defend our world against the next level of slaughter. The slaughter of any knowledge or memory of truth, compassion or peace, so that we forget who we are. Forever.

Naming the Disease - Social Atomization

Henry Giroux writes in his recent Truthout article titled "Donald Trump and the Plague of Atomization in a Neoliberal Age" of Leo Lowenthal who warned back in the forties about the atomization of human beings under a state of fear. "What he understood with great insight, even in 1946, is that democracy cannot exist without the educational political and formative cultures and institutions that make it possible."

This confirms my sense that we are trying to fight a social disease with rational arguments while the supporters of fascist movements just want a messiah who will deal with the big problems so we don't have to, but who have no idea of the danger in giving unconditional power to a single ego. A functioning democratic society can be annoying and tiresome but it has many conditions that challenge power.

In a free and democratic society that pays taxes for education, justice, and social protections for the most vulnerable - we are continually being updated with facts that challenge assumptions of how we can instinctively know the leaders we pick will protect us. That we have social standards that can't be broken. Or that we will be okay as long as the economy is okay. Or, even that we have progressed and would never push a woman in front of a train because she was wearing a headscarf.

In the fifties and sixties I was given an education based on social justice. It wasn't in headlines but it underscored all that I learned. It didn't guarantee fairness or security but assumed we had a responsibility to care about one another. We didn't read Giroux, Lowenthal or Arendt, but we knew of Socrates and Orwell.

Yet many who graduated from this era were quite happy to throw it away because it wasn't perfect.

Now we are at such a stage of civil entropy we shrug while finance capital rules and public benefits are eroded. Those at the bottom are left without a means of earning a living wage, without hope, continually ground down by endless poverty and denied human dignity.

"Mass fear is normalized as violence increasingly becomes the default logic for handling social problems." Giroux writes.

If we stop to read this age and condense all the hostility around us, we will see that life itself is the enemy of fascism. Fascism silences conversation, it wants unquestioned obedience, human sacrifices, the glorious sunset, robotic armies.

Totalitarianism wants power without the human stain, without competing organisms, without reflection or question or thought. It is the muscle without a brain, The sperm without the egg. The knife without flesh. The future without compassion. The masculine without the feminine.

The corporate media keeps telling us this over and over again, in a thousand different scenes and sound bites.

If I Can't Rule the World I Shall Destroy It

This is the cry of the authoritarian narcissist, and those who support him or her. It's a cry of despair from the minds of those who believed that reason and justice ruled the world and now realizing it's the opposite, feel betrayed but cannot see their part in it. In denial and without humility they sink into the dark hole of revenge. 

The trouble is we confuse ideology or the power of ideology with right and wrong. "Ideologies may be viewed as societally defined ideational structures that exist in order to permit latent dimensions of the psyche to become manifest in the external world." says, Richard Koenigsberg in his essay "Why do Ideologies exist".

When someone says "the real world" what they mean is the "ideational structures" that we have taken for granted as "truth". What we often call human nature is the "psychic functions" that permit certain desires and fantasies to be projected onto "reality".

The ideational structure I am most affected by is the notion of control. Raised in a nation who preached progress and who embarked on racist, colonial brutality, we argued about how to rule the world but not how to care for it. 

The male head of the household made decisions for members of his family whom he viewed as weak and childlike, who needed his strength and protection.  When things didn't go as planned the ones who failed were those who could not live "up to" the patriarch's laws.  

In authoritarian cultures, the sons learned to shut down their emotions and daughters learned how to keep silent.  Love became duty. Empathy and compassion died. 

We are born into a set of beliefs that our parents and teachers assume are right, and since we need approval from our society to survive, we learn how to adjust ourselves to an external view. It works to oppress and make obedient the people who live under its power.

I grew up believing I was good and those who behaved and thought like me were also good, and if we all thought the same there would be peace. Prejudiced and privileged, I must now swallow how wrong I was. Thanks to the Republican party in the US, I see how corrupted the white colonialist is capable of becoming. I see the harm I have caused by believing I must be in control, by holding on to control and blinding myself to the effect it has on those who have less.

The more I age, the more I lack confidence in talking about big issues. How to create or be part of an inclusive and just society is beyond my control. Things are changing. There is so much I cannot know - even on my own street. I am a stakeholder in this thing called humanity but not its ruler.

When despotic opportunists threaten what little bit of civil society remains, I feel absolutely lost. Outraged that we vote for hate rather than deal with our own discomfort because we are not in control.  You and I can't rule the world. Yet we commit endless acts of violence to support the delusion that we can. Nations are not great. And we are destroying the world because we can't rule it.

Fascist and communist movements in Europe in the 1930's, according to Hannah Arendt, recruited support from the masses dismissed as being too stupid for the other parties.

Chris Hedges, in his article The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism. writes there is only "one way left to blunt the yearning for fascism coalescing around (Donald) Trump. It is to build, as fast as possible, movements or parties that declare war on corporate power, engage in sustained acts of civil disobedience and seek to reintegrate the disenfranchised—the “losers”—back into the economy and political life of the country." 

In short,  we must declare war on our addiction to power-over and use our power to care for and heal our world in any way we can.  

Signs of Creeping Fascism

Fascism is  "a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism" says Dictionary.com.

There are always interests that seek fascist power wherever there are profitable resources. Fascism begins with a greed for power and creeps through organic systems so that it appears as a grass roots movement.  We may not suddenly slip into a fascist state or even choose it, but it does find its way slowly and we are better off if we can recognize some of the signs. Below are signs that seem to me to indicate its invasion.

When people vote for a party that has made it clear they have no value for civil society’s democratic institutions then you know that fascism has found roots in your neighbourhood.

When their leader says that people don’t care about their government being found in contempt of parliament then are rewarded with a majority, you know that fascism has deep roots in your neighbourhood.

When peaceful protesters are kettled, imprisoned and intimidated with threats of torture you know that fascism is supported with big money.

When the president of the world’s most powerful nation has to provide a full birth certificate to prove he has the right to be president, then you know that fascism is backed by very powerful big money and that media is its handmaiden.

When media incites hatred towards minorities – racial, religious, gender and sexual orientation, you know that fascism's brainwashers are prepared to invoke violence on their sleepy public.

When wars are organized that cost much more than the social programs being cut to pay for them you know that fascism is well established enough to spread seeds of division and ultimately a contempt for life.

When mainstream religions begin to protest human rights under the guise of some biblical verse you know that fascism has crept into the most sacred institutions of civil society and have turned theology into a weapon.

When the news headline reports a rise in gay bashing, the rape and murder of native women, the killing of spouses and children, the physical and mental abuse of patients, you know that fascism has undermined the mental health of society.

When politicians and economists say socialism must be destroyed and replaced with free markets you know that fascism has invaded the board rooms.

When environmentalists are lambasted and false science is broadcast globally, you know that, unchallenged, everything life depends upon will be destroyed for the sake of power.

This is how fascist power alienates the mind and the body . This is how power makes life redundant. If the fascist can't rule the world, he will destroy it.

But once power is turned around with an interrogation of structures instead of people, a celebration of diversity,  expressions of loving kindness, and the majority of thinking citizens engage in the building of their society, fascism dies. Fascism needs humans to feed it with hate and fear in order to survive.

This is the great irony - no matter the extent of contempt fascism has for humanity, it only survives because we give our power to it.

Canada poised to pass anti-terror legislation despite widespread outrage

Guardian:

Widespread protest and souring public opinion has failed to prevent Canada’s ruling Conservative Party from pushing forward with sweeping anti-terror legislation which a battery of legal scholars, civil liberties groups, opposition politicians and pundits of every persuasion say will replace the country’s healthy democracy with a creeping police state.Prime Minister Stephen Harper is looking forward to an easy victory on Tuesday when the House of Commons votes in its final debate on the bill, known as C-51. But lingering public anger over the legislation suggests that his success in dividing his parliamentary opposition may well work against him when Canadians go to the polls for a national election this fall.No legislation in memory has united such a diverse array of prominent opponents as the proposed legislation, which the Globe and Mail newspaper denounced as a a plan to create a “secret police force”.


Megan Drysdale, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression:

Here are six ways that Bill C-51 could affect your day-to-day life:

1. Your private information will no longer be private

2. Innocent words can be interpreted as terrorism

3. Online posts will be censored

4. Protesting could put you under government surveillance

5. Your travel may be restricted without explanation

6. Your material possessions may be seized

Here is our world according to Chris Hedges:

Extraction industries, like wars, empower a predominantly male, predatory population that is engaged in horrific destruction and violence. Wars and extraction industries are designed to extinguish all systems that give life—familial, social, cultural, economic, political and environmental. And they require the obliteration of community and the common good. How else could you get drag line operators in southern West Virginia to rip the tops off Appalachian mountains to get at coal seams as they turn the land they grew up in, and often their ancestors grew up in, into a fetid, toxic wasteland where the air, soil and water will be poisoned for generations? 

And the more vulnerable you are, the more the jackals appear around you to prey on your afflictions. Those who suffer most are children, women and the elderly—the children and the elderly because they are vulnerable, the women because they are left to care for them.

Naomi Wolf: 10 easy steps towards fascism

Back in 2007 Naomi Wolf wrote an article in The Guardian on how a civilized democratic society can be reduced to a barbaric fascist state. This article is timeless and should be taught in schools, or should have been taught in schools. Is it too late? 

Here are the steps:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

It's worth revisiting the article for the comments Wolf includes for each one.