You don't need a Ph.D to save the world

You just have to believe that doing the right thing at the right time, even though you may have to sacrifice something, is all that is required.  However we know that it takes more than one person and one generation, and that justice rises and declines continually. We watch the stone roll back down the hill and must roll it up again, forever.

Brigitte DePape spoke clearly and succinctly and the only weapon she carried was her conscience and a placard. Still she was classified as a security risk by a member of government.

Here is her message posted by Janice Williamson on The Pomegranate:

Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation. …We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations.

Contrary to Harper’s rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when 3 out of 4 eligible voters didn’t even give their support to the Conservatives? But we will only be able to stop Harper’s agenda if people of all ages and from all walks of life engage in creative actions and civil disobedience. …This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces.

Would it be better if people did not protest at all? What if we all stayed in our comfortable homes, transfixed to our big screen TVs, ignoring the reality around us? Should we really just accept the status quo that makes the poor, poorer and allows the environmental destruction that is ruining our planet? Where are all the people who protested in the 60’s and 70’s that inspired many of today’s activists? Have they given up on fighting for their ideals? I fear that too many people from my parents’ generation have abandoned their ideals because they think eliminating poverty or weaning ourselves off our oil addiction just isn’t ‘realistic’.

Not only is protesting important, it is our fundamental right. Many of my friends were denied this right when the police unlawfully detained them in appalling conditions for protesting peacefully, more specifically, for holding hands in a semi-circle. In order to preserve our right and ensure this does not happen again, a public inquiry into police conduct and detainee conditions is absolutely essential.

Money is power but power is not limited to money

What if we created a system where we handed out power units (called a Pu, pronounced pyoo) for those who can't access money? Would we develop a currency based on relationship to one another instead of a system that has become so complex and remote from social needs, even the experts no longer understand it? The world of finance seems to have been taken over by tricksters and magicians and their theories work like spells over banks. But the gap between haves and have-nots is getting so wide that the fissure in our future puts even the haves at risk.

Please feel free to download this image and print as many times as you like. Hand it out to your friends and family, the local baker, the grocer. The point is you exchange it for what you want - a carrot, a paper clip, tomato seedling, oatmeal cookie. You will have to negotiate with the vendor as you both decide how many Pu's a carrot is worth - but at least this exercise will bring currency out of the locked boardrooms and into the commons. Of course you could not force anyone to take a Pu. Any time power leads to force it loses its worth (its a fact that many on this planet haven't noticed yet). Also it is not recommended for use in the illegal drug trade, human trafficking or pornography.

Ideally, a Pu should be used for necessities: food, water, love, understanding, music and art. But you could try paying your taxes with it as an exercise in creative protest. Or, if you think this whole idea is just plain silly, don't use it at all.

You can, instead, give away your help and services, without asking anything in return. Give a neighbour a lift to the library, drop off vegetables from your garden to the food bank, send encouraging letters to politicians and public service employees, fill in the comments sections of surveys. The options are endless.

The Gate-Beaver

This post is a continuation of the series on the new class system, and bears no relation to the slang usage referring to a part of female anatomy or to Canada’s national emblem. Nor will this post make any reference to any imagined connection between the slang meaning and Canada’s foreign policy.

The gate-beaver is the defender of the status quo. The wild beaver has his or her own reasons for eating trees and building dams, but the gate-beaver is a cunning creature who has built a career in service to centralizing wealth and power.

Gate-beaver has established a tradition of building stuff on other stuff, and is a clever engineer of converting natural systems into profit-making industry. It is the gate-beaver who invented advertising, promotion and spin. It is the gate-beaver who is responsible for turning art (music, film, fashion, interior design, literature) into a huge money-making market.

The gate-beaver will not be the folk singer or story teller, but will be the manager who creates celebrity out of art, a politician out of a charismatic speaker, commodities out of healing wisdom, and full scale wars out of survival strategies.

The gate-beaver flourishes in advertising. If the anthro-hyena is cunning then the gate-beaver is a magician in manipulating sub-conscious waterways. The gate-beaver can create many streams out of one river of knowledge, and hand out accreditation for those who follow the flow.

The gate-beaver is not the academy but will chew through whatever needs to be chewed in order to establish him or herself in the academy, and will work 24/7 to build dams that will keep out the ideologies not useful to the ruling class.

It is this creature who has designed vehicles to indicate progress in human societies while disenfranchising human intelligence and ethics. The ultimate in the gate-beaver’s book of alchemy has been to turn civilization into a global shopping mall.

The gate-beaver is not evil; he/she is so busy staying on top of his/her game (building, contracting, networking, feeding a family, saving for retirement) - that any reflection must be done on route to a drive-through breakfast.

The Anthro-Hyena

In an earlier post I proposed a  new class system consisting of Anthro-Hyenas, Gate-Beavers and Field Mice.  This post is a closer look at the Anthro-Hyena.

The anthro-hyena is a hyena in character with human intelligence. A creature not confined by capacity or ability but by narrow vision.  He/She seems unable to connect his/her actions with outcomes unless the outcome benefits the self. The anthro-hyena is capable of creating tools, weapons, machines, systems and alliances that may destroy millions of people or hectares of land, but lacks feelings of remorse or reflection on the harmful results. The anthro-hyena is not a person with a personality disorder, or incapable of feeling empathy - but exhibits a reverse of empathy, in that he/she gets a greater sense of power and accomplishment based on the numbers of those harmed or the area of control.

It's important to point out, that the anthro-hyena is not defined by a particular religion, gender or socio-economic class, but by their focus on power as the basis of life's meaning.

The four legged hyena is satisfied with enough food to eat but the anthro-hyena keeps grasping for more of whatever is out there.  Their mantra is a whisper  held almost under the breath, repeated over and over again  - "wotsinitforme".

They are often but not always, highly educated, well dressed and show impeccable manners. This is to enable their upward mobility.  They are very skilled at manipulation, and can be found in the clubs and back rooms of the most influential and powerful institutions. They seek careers in the police force, the military, law, education, politics, finance, management - not for the love of the discipline, or to help and protect, but for the power invested in the position.

The extent to which the anthro-hyena is successful  depends on his or her ability to groom others for their own benefit. They crave followers and adoration but feel no loyalty towards anyone or anything unless it elevates their interests.  The truly genius among them gain enormous powers of influence without any notoriety or fame. They manipulate and control yet always manage to escape blame for the crises they create.

The world of wealth and power is controlled by the anthro-hyena, but they are not entirely the cause of all that is unjust and evil. They succeed because of the work and discipline of the gate-beavers, and the ignorance of the field mice.

Is Pro-Life Life-Revering?

In the Guardian today we are informed that an anti-abortion group has been drafted in as a sexual health adviser to the UK government.  This surprised me because I believed that the social sciences in Europe had not yet been dismissed in government - you know those stats that say there is less unplanned pregnancy when kids get good sex education. But I do sense a trend here, that Western democratic nations are closing the doors to science and nature, choosing power strategies that seem eerily familiar to the Victorian age.

In Victorian England women were reviled for having sex outside of marriage or raising a child alone, and imprisoned or hung for having an abortion, but the other half of that equation - the man - was seen as simply sowing his wild oats. A foetus then was a wild oat.

Is this what conservatism is?  A denial of the knowledge that disturbs us in favour of simplistic illusions that morality is a family value where father knows best, mother is the domestic servant, and children obey their parents?

If the anti-abortion narrative becomes the health policy of a nation, can we assume that the unborn will be protected after birth? Will women's groups and social workers receive support in their efforts to support women and their children?  

I know that many who join the anti-abortion movement believe that they are saving the unborn, but do they see how these movements, well-funded by wealthy interests, manage to focus on the deaths of the foetus rather than how we can design a world where mothers have access to what they need to raise a healthy child? That the rows of crosses supposedly revealing the numbers of  "murdered babies" are never compared to the numbers of children and their mothers killed in war and domestic disputes?  Within these groups you might believe that children are most at risk from their mothers.  

The anti-abortion movement is also against sex education, planned parenthood, the use of contraceptives and have not been too vocal in supporting women's shelters or women's health either. If it doesn't support women or children, then who or what does it support?

Now I agree that having an abortion is not a good thing, nor is sexual promiscuity. But we need to address these raging hormones with a little more insight than the instruction to abstain. We need to teach the young how to value themselves, their own bodies and to understand the consequences of their choices.

Women in the popular media are held up as sex goddesses or sluts, and our appetites, held up as the most sacred element of our lives, must be fulfilled.  So if we create government policies that make it illegal  or very expensive for a woman to have an abortion, or have sex, will the media be pressured into cleaning up their practice of using sex to sell products?  To put it simply - if women are to be controlled will  the corporate imaging of women also be controlled by government?  Not likely.

When women and children have choice, life is revered and society is healthier; power is more creative, less oppressive. In societies where women's bodies are the possessions of men, power is about punishment and control. 

The New Class System

I remember being cornered at a party, back in the sixties when I was a new immigrant to Canada, by a young man telling me why the UK is going down hill.  The nation was mired in a class system, he thought, that kept them from reaching their economic potential, whereas Canada was free of any such out-dated confinements. 

Back then the familiar terms were upper, middle and working class, and although Canadians didn't often allude to class, there was a vast gap between the wealthiest Canadians and the poorest.

The notion of a working, middle and aristocratic class has a genteel ring to it, but we know the reality was more brutal than was ever talked about.  Therefore I propose that the class system should be renamed - either because it has changed, or because it's more in line with reality.

I would call the three classes "anthro-hyenas", "gate-beavers" and "field mice".

Anthro-hyenas very much in the minority, are the ruling elite. Fiercely carnivorous and protective of their own friends and family they are not content to simply fill their bellies as their four legged cousins might. They are hungry for everlasting security. This means controlling world resources (including labour) by creating systems of oppression for everyone else by whatever means necessary.

Field mice are us.  We are so busy trying to survive, caring for and protecting our families we barely have time to look at the big picture.  Being vulnerable to manipulation we tend not to blame the causes but the victims of the system - particularly if they are even more vulnerable than we are.

Gate-beavers are the class created to keep the field mice from knowing how the system works. They are well trained to protect the position and power of the anthro-hyenas - to be the impenetrable walls that keep the field mice out. Gate-beavers build institutions, create laws, design wars, co opt media and do whatever they can to maintain the ideology that power is a zero sum game.

Who is to blame for this?  Is it the ruling elite, the anthro-hyenas, who have abused power for thousands of years? Is it the field mice getting dizzy running around their particular wheels unable to see the landscape?  Is it the gate-beavers who invest their lives in a system of oppression by pandering to wealthy interests?  Or is blame a construct we use out of habit, because systems of oppression have always relied on setting up enemies in order to maintain the status quo?

Is it possible that the destruction of this planet might be halted by new ways of organizing human capacity as we discover the interdependent web of self interest and social responsibility? Will there be a time when left wing and right wing become redundant phrases as Canada becomes a nation free of class structures as the young man in the sixties proclaimed?

Oppressive Power Needs Enemies - People Don't

As soon as the death of Osama bin Laden found its way to the media, 'experts' were interviewed to identify the next in line. A new book by James A. Baker (who served under Reagan and George H. W. Bush) was published about a week later, titled Beyond Bin Laden: America and the future of terror.

In Uganda there is a bill threatening to make homosexuality punishable by death. Recently, John Cummins, running for leadership of the Conservative party in BC, said he believes that homosexuality is a personal choice and does not need protection under the Human Rights Act, as if to appeal to socially conservative religious groups who have openly identified as being anti-homosexual.

The treatment of women in Afghanistan, and other middle-eastern nations, makes them public enemies by requiring garments that cover their face and bodies, thereby making the feminine illegal in public. 

Terrorists, homosexuals and women are all enemies created by authoritarian interests. Of course there is a great deal of difference between those who blow up innocent people and those who love members of the same sex. However, left unchallenged to their ultimate conclusion they are treated the same. Enemies maintain the status quo, the justification of hierarchy by creating fear. Oppressive power claims ownership of the world and all its vassals by exploiting human emotion.

We need to revere life, to celebrate it, to nurture it, to create laws and systems that allow it to thrive. We need dialogue, education, music, art, poetry, transportation, work, housing, food and water.  This is enough to fill the air waves with noise as we struggle to find peace through social justice after centuries of dysfunction and violence. The task is overwhelming enough.

We don't need control, we need guidance.  We need thinkers and listeners more than charismatic speakers. We need community more than IPads and game apps.  We need wisdom through experience in conflict resolution as we learn how to live with one another, rather than hours of escapist entertainment.

We need to develop our own counsel more than we need hundreds of news channels, sponsored by a few powerful interests.

We need love, starting with self-love.

Wherever there is a heightened rhetoric around good and evil, there is an enemy-creating industry mandated to keep the masses living in fear and feeling powerless.

Yes this is apple pie, naive, idealism, written millions of times before, like a letter from a kindergarten class. But here is the clue - children get it! What happens to the minds and hearts of those who have been cleverly subjected to propaganda in all its packages, that we think preserving life is silly.