Forward Civilizations

Just because those who promise to single-handedly save the world turn out to be fascist dictators, does not mean the goal of social justice is not worthy, nor that we are absolved of the responsibility to work for the greater good.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his book "Not in God's Name" looks into the phenomena of killing for the sake of religion and religious extremism.  While some believe that we have to get rid of religion because of this Sacks puts the blame not in religious tradition but in the human heart - which he points out, is the most deadly weapon of mass destruction.

While I haven't read the book I did listen to the whole hour of  Tapestry when Sacks was interviewed. I was taken by his expressed reverence for life, by his tolerance of different view points including atheism.

As a scholar he is able to articulate the ages where humanity left God and pursued "the will to power". He pointed out that although we live in nature we have evolved to a consciousness of our effect on nature. Therefore power cannot be separated from responsibility without us losing our humanity?  Is this what Sacks means by our relationship to God? It's probably deeper than my interpretation.

I tend to see religion as having been misused to preach the supremacy of an institution, a race, a gender. When a religion becomes a mass movement the ruling elite re-interpret the doctrine in favour of consolidating their own power and their position. In listening to Sacks I understood that this misrepresentation is mostly due to our human tendency to put our selves into the centre of all things.

All stories are about how the narrator views him or herself as the interlocutor of meaning, and the many ways in which they are tripped up, thrown off their path of righteousness.  However, it is too late to interview Abraham, Jesus or Muhammad, so we have to find the wisdom in our doubts and experiences, to retrieve meaning.  The thing is we are so often wrong, we are limited, and our views must be fed with new information and examined. And what about God? 

I think the key point in Rabbi Sacks' interview is that we are in relationship to a higher power. God does not control me because I have free will, therefore anything I choose to do can be for the good of this planet and my community but I cannot claim to know what God thinks.

A way in which we might move beyond our own obsession with power is to understand that life and truth is beyond the time and place our small lives inhabit.  The clamor of extremism and a shallow fundamentalism is due to the arrogance of our species to think we have the hotline to the universe.

Religions who preach chauvinism of any kind pander to the vanity and fears of its congregation and so remove us from the whole story. Ideology that demands obedience to a certain doctrine cuts off our dialogue with the unfolding universe.

Our task is to be human, to think, to feel, to speak, to listen, and to love life, even though we don't know the outcome or the ending. Does this mean we can't help but create stories on the beginning and the end as all religions do?

Sturm und Drang

Broadchurch is a TV crime drama about a community in Dorset, UK. I watched series 1 and 7 of 8 episodes of series 2, before I decided not to watch any more.

The crime was committed in the first episode of the first series. 11 year old Danny went missing and was found murdered, and I thought the series would be about who killed him and why. Most of series 2 takes place in the courtroom, but most of the focus is on the trauma visited upon the families and neighbours of this small community. By the fifth episode I begin to wonder why the drama is drawn out so long.  There are long scenes on beaches, in homes, in caravans, including screams, shouts and accusations as just about everyone is blamed.

In fact as I look back over the series I would say this drama is more about whose fault it is. Our need to accuse others for making us miserable rather than giving compassion to our loved ones who have survived, seems to upstage all else. Pulled into an eternal power struggle with the world, viewers may well sit on the edge of their  lazy-boys clenching teeth as tears and blood spill out across the screen while the coastal tide rolls in and out.

But rather than knit the plot together, the show kept giving us more characters, violence, spite and despair, and I found I had forgotten the original plot, and the question of who killed Danny and why. I become suspicious of the intentions of the drama and suspicious of my own addiction to wanting to find out how it ends. What is the point of all this sturm und drang?

There is plenty of evidence in the world that we suffer from the harm done by those who we think we should trust but who get caught up in their own struggles. It's beginning to look like a predictable Punch and Judy show played over and over again.  In the news, on radio, on television, on social media, at dinner parties, and in the bedroom.

From here it looks like our brains are wired for destruction, rage, and disappointment. But the program is funded by corporations who have their own agenda. Is it beneficial for the market when TV dramas show humanity as being dysfunctional and powerless?

On a parallel issue I think of national security and how we deal with threats. Brahma Chellaney in the Globe and Mail article "How to shut down jihad factories" gives us a brief history of the rise of jihadist organizations that have attacked unsuspecting citizens in the Middle East, Europe, and America from the 1970's. "With Western support, tyrannical oil monarchies in Riyadh, Doha and elsewhere were able to ride out the Arab Spring, emerging virtually unscathed. Saudi Arabia has faced little international pressure, even on human rights."  But rather than look at the role our military industrial complex has played, we are urged to hate and turn away from the causes, we are urged to remain in a state of collective powerlessness, leaving the task to "experts". 

Pretty much like the people of Broadchurch who are groping for ease of pain but who cannot find it from one another or the professionals who are there to fix it.

Surely it's our ignorance that perpetuates injustice, war, terrorism and violence, whenever we vote for politicians who offer false but easy answers that allow us to repeat the mantra "It's all your fault". Were the characters of Broadchurch somehow guilty of looking for the scapegoat rather than piece together the events that led to Danny's untimely death?

Your Task is to be Human

[Public domain], Wikimedia Commons

Don't get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one. Ludwig Wittgenstein

The whole single great problem is what? Perhaps coming to terms with the diversity of life? Or is it daring to be human when the whole structure of your world wants you to be an example of the current value, such as making money?

There are many ways you can make money. For example the oldest profession - prostitution. But it is a dangerous one and not too well rewarded unless you learn how to prostitute whatever commodity is most highly prized.

Taking care of infants is not too high on the stock market. Teaching children and adults is fraught with conflict. Those who want to teach us how to think are often under attack. Trading in stocks and shares may be lucrative if you do it a particular way. Being a doctor or a lawyer is well paid in the Western capitalist world if your clients are rich - but if the human part of you also wants to help and not to harm then you may work for the poor and be poorly paid.

Can it be said that the measure of success is how much money you make? Of course it can and often is, but whether it's true or not requires some other study. For example, drug dealers might be the richest people on a short term basis.  Or a long term if you are the chief and not near the front where you will be required to torture and kill or be tortured and killed.

Generally humans have lots of nervous information blinking through the body and brain. When you are born you form an attachment to your mother if you're lucky. But that also means you form attachments to your father, your siblings, grand-parents, aunts or uncles.  If you are loved by them you can't help but love them back.  If they emphasize success, wealth, etc., more than unconditional love, then you may feel driven to find that elusive success that no-one really explains but expects you to achieve.

I think the problem is, that we live among so many lies about success and how to achieve it, that we are lost. Being human is taken for granted when we don't really understand what it means. Because of those messages blinking through our bodies we suffer pain - headaches, insomnia, sadness, fear.

Some harm themselves for the sake of approval, some dare not think for the pain of it, some come to the conclusion that the only way to survive is to wield power through intimidation because so much of our narrative glorifies the conqueror and silences the victim.  Some believe that the only way to win is to get rid of the blinking lights through addiction to work, power, drugs, alcohol - or whatever is available.

With each century it seems that our problems stem from symptoms caused by previous symptoms of not knowing what it means to be human. The extent to which we are willing to threaten all life on this planet in order to get a brief fix indicates to me we could lose our humanity forever and not even know it.

Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/ludwigwitt147258.html

Don't get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one. Ludwig Wittgenstein
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/ludwigwitt147258.html

Arrested Development and the Future of Humanity.

Endless news reports on mainstream and social media indicate that while we are in a mess, threatened by climate change, dismissal of civil society and its needs such as education, health, art and security – we do have ways of challenging the status quo.  We have the evolution of our human nature that is far more complex than is given credit. We are at risk but the world has not ended yet.

We are stuck in a mythology that arrests our development, as our political representatives cease to problem solve but focus instead on who is to blame, shopping for scape-goats. We shake at our breakfast table listening to all the pundits warn of the many threats to our security until we are convinced we have no power at all.  

Eventually we stop planning, fundraising, organizing, sharing and caring, turn inward until the next bad driver, rude neighbour, or abusive boss, reveal everything that is wrong with the world and then we blow up in rage. At the end of the day, we return home, turn on the TV and watch hours of insults and brutality for entertainment.

To fight back against this continual, sensory oppression, we need to own the future in the way we care for our family, our jobs, our clubs and our places of worship.

We are not spectators, we are investors, stakeholders.  This is what it means to be citizens in a civil society where we treat each other with respect. It’s not a competition, it’s not a game. There are helpers, advisers and experts ready to support our community building. They are not always right or wrong. The heroes are not gun totting movie stars,  but your neighbours, ready to help, grateful for what others have done.

We give and take, celebrate our achievements, acknowledge our mistakes, become literate in what works and what doesn’t.  Take on the small tasks until we develop the confidence to take on the big ones.  

Trust is developed in community when we refuse to divide it by class, skin colour, or religion. People are less threatening when we get to know the person behind the fear, and learn to listen. We learn how to be vulnerable and to be sensitive to the ways in which others are vulnerable.

Then the scales fall from our eyes as we realize we have been trained to see our world and ourselves as a construct for the ruling system, rather than who we are.  We become more curious about how our best interests are sabotaged by fear and prejudice, and how we can transcend those pitfalls, and that most crises are fixable. That we have more courage to face up to the challenges of the unknown than we thought.

Then it becomes clear to us that being human is the task. That all other things like being a parent, a teacher, a police officer, a councilor, a president, needs study and education, but most of all requires the continual engagement of the heart and mind.

Women Who Have Made the World Better - A List You Won't Find in Mainstream Media

"I am those 66 million girls who are deprived of education." Malala Yousafzai. Nobel Lecture, 2014 Peace Prize

Malala Yousafzai 2014 Peace Prize 

Optimism of Petals

Svetlana Alexievich 2015 Literature
Youyou Tu 2015 Physiology or Medicine
May-Britt Moser 2014 Physiology or Medicine
Alice Munro 2013 Literature
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 2011 Peace
Laymah Gbowee 2011 Peace
Tawakkol Karman 2011 Peace
Elinor Ostrom 2009 Economic Sciences
Herta Muller Literature 2009
Elizabeth Blackburn 2009 Physiology or Medicine
Carol Greider 2009 Physiology or Medicine
Ada Yonath 2009 Chemistry
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi 2008 Physiology or Medicine
Doris Lessing Literature 2007
Wangari Maathai 2004 Peace
Linda Buck 2004 Physiology or Medicine
Elfriede Jelinek 2004 Literature
Shirin Ebadi 2003 Peace
Jody Williams 1997 Peace
Wislawa Szymborska 1996 Literature
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard 1995 Physiology or Medicine
Toni Morrison 1993 Literature
Rigoberta Menchú Tum 1992 Peace
Nadine Gordimer 1991 Literature
Aung San Suu Kyi 1991 Peace
Gertrude B. Elion 1988 Physiology or Medicine
Rita Levi-Montalcini 1986 Physiology or Medicine
Barbara McClintock 1983 Physiology or Medicine
Alva Myrdal 1982 Peace
Mother Teresa 1979 Peace
Rosalyn Yalow 1977 Physiology or Medicine
Betty Williams 1976 Peace
Mairead Corrigan 1976 Peace
Nelly Sachs 1966 Literature
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin 1964 Chemistry
Maria Goeppert Mayer 1963 Physics
Gerty Cori 1947 Physiology or Medicine
Emily Greene Balch 1946 Peace
Gabriela Mistral 1945 Literature
Pearl Buck 1938 Literature
Irène Joliot-Curie 1935 Chemistry
Jane Addams 1931 Peace
Sigrid Undset 1928 Literature
Grazia Deledda 1926 Literature
Selma Lagerlöf 1909 Literature
Bertha von Suttner 1905 Peace
Marie Curie 1903 Physics, 1911 Chemistry

See the whole list here http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/other/womens-day-2016.html

Life Afterlife

afterlife is a TV series about a woman called Alison who sees dead people and the reaction she gets from the outside world – news media, psychologists, ex wives, ex friends and anyone who is trying to cope with the demands made on them.

The ghosts appear as solid living people.  They have strength and power and yet their existence is denied.  Why? Who is it that keeps the ghosts alive? Mostly the deniers who want to impress their rationality on the world, who vehemently insist that ghosts do not exist because they can’t see them – therefore all mediums are frauds.

At one point the main character was institutionalized because of a mental illness which we don’t get to know  beyond the various standard labels fought over by the reigning experts.  There Alison was tortured in the way patients are usually tortured by living in the sanitized ward where they are not entitled to own their knowledge. Alison is a victim, marginalized, unable to get on with creating peace in her life. Accosted by people suffering from grief, hated by strangers who accuse without knowing her, and the dead people who need to get a message to their loved ones.

The last episode I watched begins with a man who suffocates his lover in their bed which Alison gets to know about through a woman who knocks on Alison’s door seeking help. She begs for Alison’s help. Out of compassion Alison stays at the apartment and experiences the death of the murdered woman.  The psychologist who is studying Alison for a book on psychic-phenomena, and who wants to protect her while inserting his own theory on everything she says, goes with her and sees the murderous ghost.  Only he doesn’t suffer the symptom of being suffocated – he just witnesses it.

There is a scene before the murder where you hear the man instruct the woman not to turn on the radio, talk to anyone outside the apartment, or to make a sound within. In effect she is to be invisible, inaudible, not real.  She is not to exist.

The psychologist, Robert, who is haunted by the presence of his dead son, denies any of the phenomena he felt at the spooked apartment, explaining it in terms of his psychological reasoning.

After the death of his young son, Robert is frozen in guilt and sorrow, his wife leaves, marries someone else and is now pregnant. She feels betrayed by Robert’s interest in Alison and demands that he cut ties with her. She accuses him of betraying the memory of their dead son. 

The story is filled with characters making demands on others.  Demanding they see the world as they do.

After Alison insists that the woman (who sought her out) should  leave the apartment immediately because her life is in danger, a centre-fold news article reveals the true identity of the woman. She is a journalist who assumed another name. The journalist “proved” Alison is a fraud because she created the haunting story. Again Alison finds herself betrayed, under attack, alone and reviled.

At the end of the episode the ghosts re-enter the vacant apartment claiming victory that they have returned to this beautiful place that no-one wants because it is haunted.

Whether ghosts are real or not, or whether we create ghosts, or ghosts are created to keep us afraid of the unknown is never answered. But I suspect this series is mostly about the loneliness of people who live in a culture built on ideologies and experts and who find themselves alone because the world demands adherence yet does not listen to them.  We live in a nattering, chattering age, calling forth the Shrew and taming her, replaying Othello and his Iago, creating the new Hitler and Stalin, calling those who see the world differently – idiots and frauds. 

Why does our culture in this post-modern world insist on trying to prove the existence or non-existence of phenomena? What does the journalist have to gain?  What does the ex wife have to gain? What does the psychologist have to gain? And what do the ghosts gain?

Review - Refugees Welcome: poems in a time of crisis

Refugees Welcome – poems in a time of crisis. Edited by Oliver Jones. Eyewear: 20/20 special edition (2015) www.eyewearpublishing.com.

“We like the idea of the South. / Until it knocks on our door.” (Rishi Dastidar) This is the first stanza of the first poem in this small and powerful anthology.

Poems take risks, make generalizations, in order to get to the defining element of psycho/social reality. Politics assumes it speaks on behalf of the nation it claims to serve. But who does it really serve? That is the question for the poem.

Who is served when we take in refugees or immigrants? While we tend to think of them as the other, the other knows we are the privileged, who can, in the comfort of our living rooms or office debate the issue as though it is an abstract, rather than life or death.

Thomas McColl imagines the dreams of those who have nothing else to claim … “eyelids turned into wings … above and across the barbed wire”. The vulnerability of life without walls and insurance policies is captured in Kate Noakes observation between “Black black rocks / oily with dawn / an early lamb”, reminding us how fragile our bodies are when most of us work so hard to surround ourselves with symbols of security. But refugees, war, prejudice and corporate power enter the village like “A limp rag doll, washed up on the kitchen table” (Angela T. Carr).

Sophia-Louise Hyde asks us to mind the gap between “#indifferent” and “#hope”. Devices like social media almost parenthesize civilization as we live it from day to day. Media says if it bleeds it leads but the instrument doesn’t weep, and we do even though we try not to admit it.

“Our humanity diminished” writes Adele Fraser, where “the sea, cold, unconscious, welcomed where we did not.” Civilization is much more than the economy, it is about being human and living from a human consciousness. The poet reminds us that we are entering into madness when we fail to remember who we are. Metaphor is a short cut to do that. “There is a place where the wing tears.” writes Margo Berdeshevsky. Civilization has enabled us to fly and to believe it is our individual egos that created that.

Much of corporate media feeds into the myth that we are superior because of what we have and to leave out the part of how we arrived here. George Symonds closes his poem with “Papers, papers, everywhere / And not a word believed.” So if our own creations are no longer believed what is left? Compassion?

Sally Flint confesses to have “held children who died when taken / by illness who no medic could save. / But someone could have helped” Aylen Kurdi, the 3 year old toddler found washed up by the tide.

It’s not enough to know that the instruments of power have destroyed civilizations many times before. We need to ask how those instruments work to make us less human, to oppress the spirit for the glorification of power over life. We need to see our own children in the ones who have been sacrificed for constructed goals. We need to stop making excuses for ourselves. While preaching closes the mind and the book, the image persists.

In this book there are forty pages of images that will waft into your mind and heart, to consider the link between the value of your life, and where that value comes from.

Other poets in this book are Zena Hashem Beck, Andrew Oldham, Ellen Davies, Antony Owen, Jim C Mackintosh, Rosemary Appleton, Emma Lee, Monica Corish, Janet Vickers, Kathleen Bell, Frank Dullaghan, and Colleen Sensier.